Phoebe looked in her face and broke into a harsh laugh, to poor Susan's great alarm.
'What do you think Miss Garston has been saying, Susan?
That we must be a comfort to each other.

Fancy my being a comfort to you! You poor thing, when I am the plague and burden of your life,' And she laughed again, in a way that was scarcely mirthful.
'Nay, Phoebe, you have no need to say such things,' returned her sister sadly; but she was probably used to this sort of speeches.

'I am bound to take care of you and Kitty, who are all I have left in the world.

It is not that I find it hard, but that you might make it easier by looking a little cheered sometimes.' Phoebe took this gentle rebuke somewhat scornfully.
'Cheered! The woman actually says cheered, when I am already on the border-land of the place of torment.

Was I not as good as dead and buried three years ago?
And did not father always tell us that hell begins in this world for the wicked ?' 'Ay, that was father's notion; and I was never clever enough to argue with him.