... enjoy the pleasure of say an hour of Lilith's society a deux, even with no more flirtatious or ultimate intent than the same period spent in the society of his grandmother, would inspire in George a fell murderousness, which was nothing short of a reversion to first principles. As for Lilith herself, she was fond of him, very, in a sisterly, cousinly way—and what way, indeed, could be more fatal to that by which he desired to travel? Nor did it mend matters any that their mutual ... — The Sign of the Spider • Bertram Mitford