All this she learnt without asking.

I need not add, that Caroline sighingly did her bidding.
'We must all be victims in our turn, Carry,' said the Countess.

'Evan's prospects--it may be, Silva's restoration--depend upon your hair being dressed plain to-day.

Reflect on that!' Poor Caroline obeyed; but she was capable of reflecting only that her face was unnaturally lean and strange to her.
The sisters tended and arranged one another, taking care to push their mourning a month or two ahead and the Countess animadverted on the vulgar mind of Lady Jocelyn, who would allow a 'gentleman to sit down at a gentlewoman's table, in full company, in pronounced undress': and Caroline, utterly miserable, would pretend that she wore a mask and kept grimacing as they do who are not accustomed to paint on the cheeks, till the Countess checked her by telling her she should ask her for that before the Duke.
After a visit to Evan, the sisters sailed together into the drawing-room.
'Uniformity is sometimes a gain,' murmured the Countess, as they were parting in the middle of the room.

She saw that their fine figures, and profiles, and resemblance in contrast, produced an effect.