The gilder of every pleasure, the soother of every sorrow

Had a nice little chat with my sister this evening, so that I could air some concerns and put my mind in order. I feel sorry for women who don't have a sister. Second best would be a friend who's like a sister, with whom you have built a lasting friendship, but no one knows you like someone who grew up in the same home with you and you've known each other for as long as you can remember (or maybe she remembers before she knew me, but I bet not much).

It made me think of in Pride and Prejudice when Elizabeth was able to talk over some things with her sister Jane ("Elizabeth's impatience to acquaint Jane with what had happened could no longer be overcome") and, after they talked, Elizabeth said, "I was very uncomfortable. I may say unhappy. And with no one to speak to of what I felt, no Jane to comfort me and say that I had not been so very weak and vain and nonsensical as I knew I had! Oh! how I wanted you!"



Jane Austen herself had a sister she was very close to, Cassandra. When Jane Austen died, Cassandra Austen wrote to their niece, Fanny, "I have lost a treasure, such a sister, such a friend as never can have been surpassed. She was the sun of my life, the gilder of every pleasure, the soother of every sorrow; I had not a thought concealed from her, and it is as if I had lost a part of myself."

Such a friend as never can have been surpassed