Page:Gissing - The Nether World, vol. II, 1889.djvu/127

 done something, Jane. I had no right to know what you were suffering and just go by as if it didn’t matter!”

“Oh, but you didn’t!” came eagerly from the girl’s lips. “You’ve forgotten, but I can’t. You were very kind to me,—you helped me more than you can think,—you never saw me without speaking kindly. Don’t you remember that night when I came to fetch you from the workshop, and you took off your coat and put it over me, because it was cold and raining?”

“Jane, what a long, long time ago that seems!”

“As long as I live I shall never forget it—never! You were the only friend I had then.”

“No; there was some one else who took thought for you,” said Sidney, regarding her gravely.

Jane met his look for an instant,—they could just read each other’s features in the pale light,—then dropped her eyes.

“I don’t think you’ve forgotten that either,” he added, in the same unusual voice.