Killigrew decidedly. "I should say they were as different as it is
possible for two persons of the same sex to be. Hilaria was like a boy;
Miss Grey is most feminine."

"Yes, she is," said Ishmael eagerly; "but there's the same frankness,
that way of meeting you that other girls don't have."

"I know what you mean," agreed Carminow, "though I don't think one
notices it when one sees more of Miss Grey. As Killigrew says, she is so
essentially feminine--she is always gwateful for support in a way that
is really very sad in one who has to battle with the world. It is a hard
life for a refined gentlewoman, I fear."

"Dear old chap, with his 'battling with the world' and all the rest of
his really highly moral conventional views!" exclaimed Killigrew. "He's
a fraud, isn't he, Ishmael, who pretends to love to wallow in blug just
to hide his lamblike disposition."

"You always did talk wot," remarked Carminow placidly. "You're weally
not a bit changed, Killigrew, in spite of Paris. By the way, I suppose
you heard about Polkinghorne?"

"Yes, from Old Tring. I went to St. Renny a little while ago."

"Ah! then you heard about Hilaria? I thought from Ruan's mention of her
you had neither of you heard."

"Heard what?"

"Why," said Carminow in rather a shocked voice, "about her illness."