She and Adela were close friends; Adela indeed, had no other friend in the nearer sense.

The two were made of very different fibre, but that had not as yet distinctly shown.
Adela's reproof was not wholly without effect; her brother got through the evening without proceeding to his extremest truculence, still the conversation was entirely of his leading, consequently not a little argumentative.

He had brought home, as he always did on Saturday, a batch of ultra periodicals, among them the 'Fiery Cross,' and his own eloquence was supplemented by the reading of excerpts from these lively columns.

It was a combat of three to one, but the majority did little beyond throwing up hands at anything particularly outrageous.

Adela said much less than usual.