Page:Gissing - The Nether World, vol. II, 1889.djvu/135

 smile with which he speedily answered Sidney’s look of trouble was full of reassurance.

“You couldn’t have said anything that would give me more pleasure,” he replied, just above his breath. “Does she know it? Did you speak to her?”

“We were talking of years ago, and I mentioned Clara Hewett. I said that I had forgotten all about her except that she’d befriended Jane. But nothing more than that. I couldn’t say what I was feeling just then. Partly I thought that it was right to speak to’ you first; and then—it seemed to me almost as if I should be treating her unfairly. I’m so much older,—she knows that it isn’t the first time Iand she’s always thought of me just as a friend.”

“So much older?” repeated Michael, wath a grave smile. “Why, you’re both children to my sight. Wait and let me think a bit, Sidney. I too have something I want to say. I’m glad you’ve spoken this afternoon, when there’s time for us to talk. Just wait a few minutes, and let me think.”