Page:Gissing - The Nether World, vol. III, 1889.djvu/76

 been thinking often of Sidney Kirkwood since his name had been dismissed from their conversation. He, too, had often turned his mind uneasily in the same direction, wondering whether he ought to have spoken of Sidney so freely. At the time it seemed best, indeed almost inevitable; but habit and the force of affection were changing his view of Clara in several respects. He recognised the impossibility of her continuing to live as now, yet it was as difficult as ever to conceive a means of aiding her. Unavoidably he kept glancing towards Kirkwood. He knew that Sidney was no longer a free man; he knew that, even had it been otherwise, Clara could be nothing to him. In spite of facts, the father kept brooding; on what might have been. His own love was perdurable: how could it other than intensify when its object was so unhappy? His hot, illogical mood all but brought about a revival of the old resentment against Sidney.

“I haven’t seen him for a week or two,” he replied, in an embarrassed way.

“Did he tell you he shouldn’t come?”

“No. After we’d talked about it, you know,—when you told me you didn’t mind,—I just