Page:Gissing - The Nether World, vol. I, 1889.djvu/44

 Ha! that was the old tone of kindness! How it entered into her blood and warmed it! She allowed herself one quick glance at him.

"Do I walk too quick for you?"

"Oh no, sir. Mr. Kirkwood, please, there's something I"

The sentence had, as it were, begun itself, but timidity cut it short. Sidney stopped and looked at her.

"What? Something you wanted to tell me, Jane?"

He encouraged her, and at length she made her disclosure. It was of what had happened in the public-house. The young man listened with much attention, walking very slowly. He got her to repeat her second-hand description of the old man who had been inquiring for people named Snowdon.

"To think that you should have been just too late!" he exclaimed with annoyance.

"Have you any idea who he was?"

"I can't think, sir," Jane replied sadly.