She could be sisterly to him over this without suggesting to him what she could not be to him.

Her instinct had divined right, and she felt the answering pressure of his elbow that acknowledged her sympathy, welcomed it, and thought no more about it.
"You are giving everything to keep her," she said.

"You are giving yourself.

What further gift is there, Michael ?" He kept her arm close pressed by him, and she knew by the frankness of that holding caress he was thinking of her still either not at all, or, she hoped, as a comrade who could perhaps be of assistance to courage and clear-sightedness in difficult hours.

She wanted to be no more than that to him just now; it was the most she could do for him, but with a desire, the most acute she had ever felt for him, she wanted him to accept that--to take her comradeship as he would have surely taken her brother's.