Ophelia started at the suggestion. "Do you mean dear Phyri, or one of her sisters?" she asked, trying to recall what she knew of Porphyria's younger siblings. Not much, regrettably; by the time she'd befriended Phyri all of Ophelia's similarly aged siblings had died, so she had no ready source of common ground with any of them. When she was alone with her friend, their conversations typically turned to much less mundane matters than siblings.

"I can't claim to know her siblings well enough to say, but I do not believe my Miss Dempsey is likely to take an interest in anyone," she confessed. "She thinks having any attachment would interfere with her poetry, I think; it's more Romantic to live a spinster and die alone. But I should never say no to her inclusion at a dinner party," she added. "Perhaps I shall be proven wrong on that account. Though, Nova —" she paused, finding a way to phrase this delicately only because Phyri was such a good friend of hers. "I had thought you intended to look among the freshest faces in the marriage market. Do you think your brother would prefer someone more... mature?"