Page:Gissing - The Nether World, vol. II, 1889.djvu/270

 and seated herself. Sidney let his hat drop on to the chair, but remained standing, his arms resting on the back.

“It’s a very short time since I myself knew of it,” he continued. “Till then, I as little imagined as you did that”. He paused, then resumed more quickly, “But it explains many things which I had always understood in a simpler way.”

“I feel, too, that I know grandfather much better than I did,” Jane said. “He’s always been thinking about the time when I should be old enough to hear what plans he’d made for me. I do so hope he really trusts me, Mr. Kirkwood! I don’t know whether I speak about it as he wishes. It isn’t easy to say all I think, but I mean to do my best to be what he"

“He knows that very well. Don’t be anxious; he feels that all his hopes have been realised in you.”

There was silence. Jane made a pretence of using her needle, and Sidney watched her hands.