Confused by a sentence from a novel.
Of course, she thought, walking on, Milly is about my age--fifty, fifty-two. So it is probably that, Hugh's manner had said so, said it perfectly--dear old Hugh, thought Mrs Dalloway, remembering with amusement, with gratitude, with emotion, how shy, like a brother—one would rather die than speak to one's brother--Hugh had always been, when he was at Oxford, and came over, and perhaps one of them (drat the thing!) couldn't ride.

The part which I cannot understand is “one would rather die than speak to one's brother”. What does this sentence mean? Does it mean "Hugh is like a brother who would rather die than speak to his brother" or "Hugh is like a brother who you would rather die than speak to".

Question

Confused by a sentence from a novel.
Of course, she thought, walking on, Milly is about my age--fifty, fifty-two. So it is probably that, Hugh's manner had said so, said it perfectly--dear old Hugh, thought Mrs Dalloway, remembering with amusement, with gratitude, with emotion, how shy, like a brother—one would rather die than speak to one's brother--Hugh had always been, when he was at Oxford, and came over, and perhaps one of them (drat the thing!) couldn't ride.

The part which I cannot understand is “one would rather die than speak to one's brother”. What does this sentence mean? Does it mean "Hugh is like a brother who would rather die than speak to his brother" or "Hugh is like a brother who you would rather die than speak to".

Answer

It means that Hugh was 'like' a brother and so it was easier to talk to him, as the speaker would rather die than to speak to their real brother.

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