I moved up close to her again, and I told her there was something I had to say before we got to London. "You and I, you see, we don't know very much, and we get carried away." "You mean me," said Betty. "You are thinking about Eddie Monmouth and----" Then I told her I did not mean her alone. "I don't know how it is," I said, remembering Mr. Whitby-Dawson and Captain Monmouth and Ranny--yes, and others--"I don't know how it is, but girls seem to 'care' more than men do." "I've thought that, too," Bettina said. I said I was sure it was true. Men had so much to do. Life was so full for them ... perhaps that took their minds off. I put my arm round Bettina and held her close. "I am going to confess something," I said, "that most older sisters would deny. But you have got nobody but me. And I have nobody but you. We must help each other." "I shall have Aunt Josephine," Betty reminded me. "A stranger--and too old besides." I dismissed Aunt Josephine for the particular purpose in view. "I am going to tell you something very--particular." Then, while she looked at the cushions opposite, and I looked out of the window, I told her I had learned from Eric Annan what she had learned through the others. "We'll say it just this once, and never, never again so long as we live! And we may have to deny it," I warned her. "But I think, if I'm honest about it with you, maybe you won't feel that I don't understand ... or that I am, as you say, 'different.' You will feel closer to me," I pleaded. "And maybe we shall both be stronger for that." I waited a moment. I was glad Betty still stared straight in front of her. "We don't only care more than men do," I said. "We _need_ men more than they need us." Bettina turned at that. I felt her eyes on me. Then she looked down and stroked my hand. "I think Mr. Annan does care about you," she said. "A little," I said. "Not enough. Not as I care." Bettina pointed out that Eric Annan was not so young as we. "Why, he must be thirty. Perhaps when he was our age"--our eyes met in the new comradeship, and then fell--"he may have taken more interest in--more interest in the things we think about." Then she took it back. "No, no. You may depend it's only girls who are like that--caring so terribly much. I thought it was only me. But if you are like that too, maybe there are others." After a moment: "You were good to tell me," she said. "I don't feel so--unnatural." The train was slowing. The light grew grey. We were in a dim place, between a smoky wall and a rattling train going out as we came in. Then the platform, and the porters running along by our windows. "Luggage, miss?" Bettina started up. "Aunt Josephine!" CHAPTER XXVI AUNT JOSEPHINE She was an imposing figure, beautifully dressed in black. She was handsomer than her picture, and younger-looking than we expected. It occurred to me that bio-vibratory sympathism had a thinning effect.