Hester had loved roses and could never have enough of them . Her favorite bush was growing by the steps , all gloried over with blossoms -- white , with pale pink hearts . I gathered a cluster and pinned it loosely on my breast . But my eyes filled as I did so -- I felt so very , very desolate . I was all alone , and it was bitter . The roses , much as I loved them , could not give me sufficient companionship . I wanted the clasp of a human hand , and the love-light in human eyes . And then I fell to thinking of Hugh , though I tried not to . I had always lived alone with Hester . I did not remember our parents , who had died in my babyhood . Hester was fifteen years older than I , and she had always seemed more like a mother than a sister . She had been very good to me and had never denied me anything I wanted , save the one thing that mattered . I was twenty-five before I ever had a lover . This was not , I think , because I was more unattractive than other women . The Merediths had always been the `` big '' family of Newbridge . The rest of the people looked up to us , because we were the granddaughters of old Squire Meredith . The Newbridge young men would have thought it no use to try to woo a Meredith . I had not a great deal of family pride , as perhaps I should be ashamed to confess . I found our exalted position very lonely , and cared more for the simple joys of friendship and companionship which other girls had . But Hester possessed it in a double measure ; she never allowed me to associate on a level of equality with the young people of Newbridge .
We must be very nice and kind and affable to them -- noblesse oblige , XXXXX it were -- but we must never forget that we were Merediths .
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