The two always told a story in couples, and always differed
with each other about the facts, the sister politely contradicting
the brother when it was Sir Joseph's story, and the brother politely
contradicting the sister when it was Miss Lavinia's story. Separated one
from the other, and thus relieved of their own habitual interchange
of contradiction, neither of them had ever been known to attempt the
relation of the simplest series of events without breaking down.
"It was five years before I knew you, Richard," proceeded Sir Joseph.
"Six years," said Miss Graybrooke.
"Excuse me, Lavinia."
"No, Joseph, I have it down in my diary."
"Let us waive the point." (Sir Joseph invariably used this formula as a
means of at once conciliating his sister, and getting a fresh start for
his story.) "I was cruising off the Mersey in a Liverpool pilot-boat. I
had hired the boat in company with a friend of mine, formerly notorious
in London society, under the nickname (derived from the peculiar brown
color of his whiskers) of 'Mahogany Dobbs.
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