From the security of their Mirror they looked out upon the world. Only from inside the House could the Mirror be broken—surely then they were secure.... Katherine was always a very modest little girl, but her modesty had never led to any awkward shyness or embarrassment; she simply did not consider herself at all. She had been, in the early days, a funny little figure, ‘dumpy’, with serious brown eyes and a quiet voice. She was never in the way, better at home than at parties, she never ‘struck’ strangers, as did her younger sister Millicent, ‘who would be brilliant when she grew up’; Katherine would never be brilliant. She had, from the first, a capacity for doing things for the family without attracting attention—and what more can selfish people desire? She was soon busy and occupied—necessary to the whole house. She very seldom laughed, but her eyes twinkled and she was excellent company did anyone care for her opinion. Only Uncle Tim of them all realised her intelligence—for the rest of the family she was slow ‘but a dear.’ It was in her capacity of ‘a dear’ that she finally stood to all of them. They adored because they knew that they never disappointed her. Although they had, none of them (save Henry) any concern as to their especial failings or weaknesses, it was nevertheless comforting to know that they might put anything upon Katherine, behave to her always in the way that was easiest to them, and that she would always think them splendid. They would not in public places put Katherine forward as a Fine Trenchard. Millicent would be a Fine Trenchard one day—but at home, in their cosy fortified security, there was no one like Katherine. Katherine was perfect to them all.... Not that she did not sometimes have her tempers, her impatiences, her ‘moods’. They were puzzled when she was short with them, when she would not respond to their invitations for compliments, when she seemed to have some horrible doubt as to whether the Trenchard world was, after all, the only one—but they waited for the ‘mood’ to pass, and it passed very swiftly ... it is noteworthy however that never, in spite of their devotion to her, did they during these crises, attempt to help or console her. She stood alone, and at the back of their love there was always some shadow of fear.