The staple of his talk was at first the
painfully unnatural relations existing between his father, his
daughter, and himself. He had led a most unsatisfactory life; he
owned it, deplored it. That the old man should distrust him was but
natural; but would not Sidney, as a common friend, do his best to
dispel this prejudice? On the subject of his brother Mike he kept
absolute silence. The accident of meeting an intimate acquaintance
at the office of Messrs. Percival and Peel had rendered it possible
for him to pursue his inquiries in that direction without it
becoming known to Michael Snowdon that he had done anything of the
kind; and the policy he elaborated for himself demanded the
appearance of absolute disinterestedness in all his dealings with
his father. Aided by the shrewd Mrs. Peckover, he succeeded in
reconciling Clem to a present disappointment, bitter as it was, by
pointing out that there was every chance of his profiting largely
upon the old man's death, which could not be a very remote
contingency. At present there was little that could be done save to
curry favour in Hanover Street, and keep an eye on what went forward
between Kirkwood and Jane.
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