For all that, they were not quite so well attuned to each other as when the young married woman, indifferent seemingly to social distinction, patronised the ambitious girl, and, by the mere bestowal of confidence, subtly flattered her.  In those days Alma did not feel it as patronage, for Sibyl’s social position was perhaps superior to her own, and in things of the intellect (apart from artistic endowment) she sincerely looked up to her friend.  Together they trod ground above the heads of ordinary women in their world.  But changes had been at work.  Alma now felt herself, to say the least, on equal terms with Mrs. Carnaby.  Economically, she was secure; whereas Sibyl, notwithstanding the show she made, drew daily nearer to a grave crisis, and might before long find herself in a very unpleasant situation.  Intellectually, Alma saw herself in a less modest light than before marriage; the daily companionship of such a man as her husband had been to her as a second education; she had quite overtaken Sibyl, if not gone a little beyond her.  The deference she still showed was no longer genuine, and this kind of affectation, hard to support and readily perceived, is very perilous to friendship.  Conscious of thoughts she must not utter, Alma naturally attributed to her friend the same sort of reticence.  She feared that Sibyl must often have in mind the loss she had suffered three years ago, and would contrast her own precarious circumstances with the comfort of Bennet Frothingham’s daughter.  Moreover, Mrs. Carnaby was not in all respects her own self; she had lost something on her travels; was it a shade of personal delicacy, of mental refinement?  She seemed more inclined to self-assertion, to aim somewhat at worldly success, to be less careful about the friends she made.  Alma felt this difference, though not clear as to its nature, and insensibly it helped to draw them apart.

‘Yes, Hugh is at Coventry,’ said Sibyl, when the servant had withdrawn.  ’He’ll go backwards and forwards, you know.  I don’t think he’ll have very much to do practically with the business; but just at first he likes to see what’s going on.’

‘I hope it will prosper.’

‘Oh, no doubt it will.  It was a very good idea.’

Sibyl spoke as though she had never contemplated the possibilities which were in Alma’s mind.  Her husband, as Alma knew from Rolfe, was in anything but a sanguine mood; he saw his position in all its gravity, and could hardly rest for fear that this latest enterprise should not succeed.  Sibyl, however, enjoyed her lunch with complete tranquillity.  She had the air of being responsible for nothing.

’I’m not at all sorry we went away for a time.  Travelling suits Hugh; it has done him a great deal of good.  I believe he would have liked to stay in Tasmania; but he saw it wouldn’t do for me, and the good fellow could think of nothing else but my comfort.  I have a great admiration for Hugh,’ she added, with a smile, not exactly of superiority or condescension, but of approval distinct from tenderness.  ’Of course, I always had, and it has increased since I’ve travelled with him.  He shows to far more advantage on a ship than in a drawing-room.  On this last voyage we had some very bad weather, and then he was at his best.  I admired him immensely!’