He thought women capable of acts of foolishness; his bright-faced sister he could thoroughly trust for prudent conduct.

He gave her a good portion of his heart in confidence, and all of it in affection.

There were matters which he excluded from confidence, even from intimate communication with himself.

These he could not reveal; nor could she perfectly open her heart to him, for the same reason.

They both had an established ideal of their personal qualities, not far above the positive, since they were neither of them pretentious, yet it was a trifle higher and fairer than the working pattern; and albeit they were sincere enough, quite sincere in their mutual intercourse, they had, by what each knew at times of the thumping organ within them, cause for doubting that they were as transparent as the other supposed; and they were separately aware of an inward smile at one another's partial deception; which did not thwart their honest power of working up to the respected ideal.