Being a life-long friend to someone is a special gift. Knowing their innermost feelings and deepest secrets can bring two friends together or ultimately tear them apart. Edith Wharton’s short story Roman Fever (rpt. in Greg Johnson and Thomas R. Arp Perrine’s Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense, 12th ed. [Boston: Wadsworth, 2015] 387-397) gives an example of two well-bred ladies that have been intimate friends from childhood into ripe middle age. The two ladies, Grace Ansley and Alida Slade, are different in nearly every aspect. From appearance to personality, they are on opposite sides of the scale. However, there is a side to both of these ladies that is venomous and shrouded. Although Grace and Alida have striking physical, personality
