Ah me! what had occurred between them to break the bonds of their mutual trust--to quench the ardour of their firm friendship?
But so it was between them now.

It was fated that they never again should place full confidence in each other.
There was no such breach between the sisters, at least not as yet; but even between them there was no free and full interchange of their hopes and fears.

Gertrude and Linda shared the same room, and were accustomed--as what girls are not ?--to talk half through the night of all their wishes, thoughts, and feelings.
And Gertrude was generally prone enough to talk of Harry Norman.
Sometimes she would say she loved him a little, just a little; at others she would declare that she loved him not at all--that is, not as heroines love in novels, not as she thought she could love, and would do, should it ever be her lot to be wooed by such a lover as her young fancy pictured to her.

Then she would describe her beau ideal, and the description certainly gave no counterpart of Harry Norman.

To tell the truth, however, Gertrude was as yet heart whole; and when she talked of love and Harry Norman, she did not know what love was.
On this special Sunday evening she was disinclined to speak of him at all.