"
"Oh! there are men and women enough, I dare say,"
cried Julia; "and the family is large--eleven in the
whole; but they must feel the want of friends in
such a retired place."
"What, with six sisters!" said Katherine, laughing
and shaking her head.
"There is a difference between a sister end a friend,
you know," said Julia, a little surprised.
"I--indeed I have yet to learn that," exclaimed the
other, in a little more astonishment.
"Why you feel affection for your sisters from nature
and habit; but friendship is voluntary, spontaneous,
and a much stronger feeling--friendship is a
sentiment."
"And cannot one feel this sentiment, as you call it,
for a sister?" asked Katherine, smiling.
"I should think not," returned Julia, musing; "I
never had a sister; but it appears to me that the
very familiarity of sisters would be destructive to
friendship."
"Why I thought it was the confidence--the
familiarity--the secrets--which form the very
essence of friendship." cried Katherine; "at least so
I have always heard."
"True," said Julia, eagerly, "you speak true--the
confidence and the secrets--but not the--the--I am
not sure that I express myself well--but the
intimate knowledge that one has of one's own
sister--that I should think would be destructive to
the delicacy of friendship."
"Julia means that a prophet has never honour in his
own country," cried Charles with a laugh--"a
somewhat doubtful compliment to your sex, ladies,
under her application of it.
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