THE FRIENDS OF THE FAMILY Brock discovered in due time that he was living in a lofty but uncertain place, among the clouds of exaltation.

It was not until the close of the succeeding day that he began to lower himself grudgingly from the height to which Freddie's ill-mannered confession had led him.

By that time he satisfactorily had convinced himself that no one but a fool could have suspected Constance of being in love with Ulstervelt; and yet, on the other hand, was he any better off for this cheerful argument?
There was nothing to prove that she cared for him, notwithstanding this agreeable conclusion by contrast.

As a matter of fact, he came earthward with a rush, weighted down by the conviction that she did not care a rap for him except as a conveniently moral brother-in-law.

He was further distressed by Edith's comfortless, though perhaps well-qualified, announcement that she believed her sister to be in love; she could not imagine with whom; she only knew she "acted as if she were." "Besides, Roxbury," she said warningly, "it's a most degenerate husband who falls in love with his wife's sister." They were walking in one of the mountain paths, some distance behind the others.