Effie, and the dark one's Phoebe.

After that the acquaintance ripened. They exchanged salutes whenever
they met. Then Gibson, moved beyond endurance by their daily strife
with the bath-chair, was generally to be seen at their gateway in
time to help them.

As the days grew longer the Richardsons began to take their tea out
of doors on their grass-plot. And then it seemed to strike them all
at once that the gentleman next door was lonely, and one afternoon
they invited him to tea.

Then Gibson had his tea served on _his_ grass plot, and invited the
Richardsons, and the Richardsons (they were so absurdly grateful)
invited him to supper and to spend the evening. They thanked him for
coming. "It was such a pleasure," Effie said (Effie was the elder),
"such a great pleasure to Father."

Gibson hardly thought his society could be a pleasure to anyone, but
he tried to make himself useful. He engaged himself as the General's
bath-chair man. He bowled him along at the round pace he loved,
while the little ladies, Effie and Phoebe, trotted after them,
friendly and gay.

And he began to go in and out next door as a matter of course, till
it was open to the little sisters to regard him as their own very
valuable property. But they were not going to be selfish about him.
Oh, no! They took him, as they took everything else, in turns. They
tried hard to divide him fairly. If he attached himself to Effie
(the fair one), Effie would grow uneasy, and she would get up and
positively hand him over to Phoebe (the dark one). If Phoebe
permitted herself to talk to him for any while, her eyes would call
to Effie, and when Effie came she would slip away and take up her
sad place by the General's armchair. In their innocent rivalry it
was who could give him more up to the other. And, as Phoebe was
the more determined little person, it was Phoebe who generally had
it her own way. "Father," too, came in for his just share. Gibson
felt that he would not be tolerated on any footing that kept
"Father" out of it. There was also a moment in the evening when he
would be led up to the armchair, and both Effie and Phoebe would
withdraw and leave him to that communion.

There was a third sister he knew now. She was the eldest, and her
name was Mary. She was away somewhere in the north, recovering, he
gathered, from "Father" (of course, they took it in turns to recover
from him), while Father wandered up and down the south coast,
endeavoring, vain