[It is, and that he'd bother with her, who she was fairly sure no one really tried to any more...]

That's a very fine proverb. I shall try to remember it the next time I am faced with a room of advisors that I would dearly like to have executed.

[It's a joke. Mostly.]

It does seem that way, and would certainly explain my sister and I... and both of us and my father. [they fought terribly sometimes.] And I will try and keep in mind what you have said.