The causes of humiliation and disaster in a woman's life seem to have no sacredness for her women friends.

Yet if that same friend whom she has run down is ill, the runner down will nurse her day and night with absolutely selfless devotion." "I have often been puzzled by that," said Rachel.

"I seem to be always making mistakes about women, and perhaps that is the reason.

They show themselves capable of some deep affection or some great self-sacrifice, and I respect and admire them, and think they are like that all through.

And the day comes when they are not quite straightforward, or are guilty of some petty meanness, which a man who is not fit to black their boots would never stoop to." Hester's eyes fixed on her friend.
"Do you tell them?
Do you show them up to themselves," she asked, "or do you leave them ?" "I do neither," said Rachel.