Page:Gissing - The Nether World, vol. I, 1889.djvu/291

 Kirkwood, and I daresay I shall find him in, if I walk on at once.”

They went in different directions, and Snowdon made what speed he could to Tysoe Street. Sidney had already been out, walking restlessly and aimlessly for two or three hours. The news he now heard was the half-incredible fulfilment of a dread that had been torturing him through the night. No calamity is so difficult to realise when it befalls as one which has haunted us in imagination.

“That means nothing!” he exclaimed, as if resentfully. “She was dissatisfied with the lodging, that’s all. Perhaps she’s already got a place. I daresay there’s a note from her at home this morning.”

“Shall you go and see if there is?” asked Snowdon, allowing, as usual, a moment’s silence to intervene.

Sidney hesitated, avoiding the other’s look.

“I shall go to that house first of all, I think. Of course I shall hear no more than they told Jane; but”