Page:Gissing - The Nether World, vol. II, 1889.djvu/85

 “He wants you to take him home to see your grandfather, Jane. There’s been reasons why he couldn’t go before. Hadn’t you better go at once, Jo?”

Jane rose and waited whilst her father assumed his hat and drew on a new pair of gloves. She could not look at either husband or wife. Presently she found herself in the street, walking without consciousness of things in the homeward direction.

“You’ve grown up a very nice, modest girl, Jane,” was her father’s first observation. “I can see your grandfather has taken good care of you.”

He tried to speak as if the situation were perfectly simple. Jane could find no reply.

“I thought it was better,” he continued, in the same matter-of-fact voice, “not to see either of you till this marriage of mine was over. I’ve had a great deal of trouble in life,—I’ll tell you all about it some day, my dear,—and I wanted just to settle myself before—I daresay you’ll understand what I mean. I