At eight o'clock, accordingly,
Snowdon went forth with his granddaughter, and, having discovered
the street to which Sidney had directed him, he waited at a distance
whilst Jane went to make her inquiries. In a few minutes the girl
rejoined him.
'Miss Hewett has gone away,' she reported.
'To spend the day, do you mean?' was Snowdon's troubled question.
'No, she has left the house. She went yesterday, in the afternoon.
It was very sudden, the landlady says, and she doesn't know where
she's gone to.'
Jane had no understanding of what her information implied; seeing
that it was received as grave news, she stood regarding her
grandfather anxiously. Though Clara had passed out of her world
since those first days of illness, Jane held her in a memory which
knew no motive of retention so strong as gratitude. The thought of
harm or sorrow coming upon her protector had a twofold painfulness.
Instantly she divined that Clara was in some way the cause of Sidney
Kirkwood's inability to go into the country to-day. For a long time
the two had been closely linked in her reflections; Mrs. Peckover
and Clem used constantly to exchange remarks which made this
inevitable.
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