Hermann, is it enough?
You ought to know.

There's no use in you unless you know about me." She put out her arm, and clasped his two legs in the crook of her elbow.

That expressed their attitude, what they were to each other, as absolutely as any physical demonstration allowed.

Had there not been the difference of sex which severed them she could never have got the sense of support that this physical contact gave her; had there not been her sisterhood to chaperon her, so to speak, she could never have been so at ease with a man.

The two were lover-like, without the physical apexes and limitations that physical love must always bring with it.
The complement of sex that brought them so close annihilated the very existence of sex.