Page:Gissing - The Nether World, vol. III, 1889.djvu/98

 “Have I so many friends? And what right have I to look to you for an act of kindness? Did I merit it by my words when I last”

There came a marvellous change—a change such as it needed either exquisite feeling or the genius of simulation to express by means so simple. Unable to show him by a smile, by a light in her eyes, what mood had come upon her, what subtle shifting in the direction of her thought had checked her words,—by her mere movement as she stepped lightly towards him, by the carriage of her head, by her hands half held out and half drawn back again, she prepared him for what she was about to say. No piece of acting was ever more delicately finished. He knew that she smiled, though nothing of her face was visible; he knew that her look was one of diffident, half-blushing pleasure. And then came the sweetness of her accents, timorous, joyful, scarcely to be recognised as the voice which an instant ago had trembled sadly in self-reproach.

“But that seems to you so long ago, doesn’t it? You can forgive me now Father has told me what happiness you have found, and I—I am so glad!”