hough since her return she had been little
better at times than a rebellious and sulky stranger, nevertheless she
was a part of Ansdore, a part of Joanna's life there, and the elder
sister found it difficult to adjust things to her absence.

Of course Ellen had not gone very far--Donkey Street was not five miles
from Ansdore, though in a different parish and a different county. But
the chasm between them was enormous--it was queer to think that a mere
change of roof-tree could make such a difference. No doubt the reason
was that with Ellen it had involved an entire change of habit. While she
lived with Joanna she had been bound both by the peculiarities of her
sister's nature and her own to accept her way of living. She had
submitted, not because she was weak or gentle-minded but because
submission was an effective weapon of her welfare; now, having no
further use for it, she ruled instead and was another person. She was,
besides, a married woman, and the fact made all the difference to Ellen
herself. She felt herself immeasurably older and wiser than Joanna, her
teacher and tyrant. Her sister's life seemed to her puerile.... Ellen
had at last read the riddle of the universe and the secret of wisdom.

The sisters' relations were also a little strained over Arthur Alce.
Joanna resented the authority that Ellen assumed--it took some time to
show her that Arthur was no longer hers. She objected when Ellen made
him shave off his moustache and whiskers; he looked ten years younger
and a far handsomer man, but he was no longer the traditional Arthur
Alce of Joanna's history, and she resented it. Ellen on her part
resented the way Joanna still made use of him, sending him to run
errands and make inquiries for her just as she used in the old days
before his marriage. "Arthur, I hear there's some good pigs going at
Honeychild auction--I can't miss market at Lydd, but you might call
round and have a look for me." Or "Arthur, I've a looker's boy coming
from Abbot's Court--you might go there for his characters, I haven't
time, with the butter-making to-day and Mene Tekel such an owl."

Ellen rebelled at seeing her husband ordered about, and more than once
"told off" her sister, but Joanna had no intention of abandoning her
just claims in Arthur, and the man himself was pig-headed--"I mun do
what I can for her, just as I used." Ellen could make him shave off his
whiskers, she could even make him on occasion young and fond and
frol