What could be easier, if he
played his cards well and patiently enough, than to lead Jane to
regard the fortune as her most threatening enemy? Valuable results
might come of that, whether before or after the death of the old
man.
The conversation in which he first ventured to strike this note
undisguisedly took place on the same evening as that unpleasant
scene when Sidney as good as quarrelled with him--the evening
before the day on which Sidney asked Clara Hewett to be his wife.
Having found Jane alone, he began to talk in his most paternal
manner, his chair very near hers, his eyes fixed on her sewing. And
presently, when the ground was prepared:
'Jane, there's something I've been wanting to say to you for a long
time. My dear, I'm uneasy about you.'
'Uneasy, father?' and she glanced at him nervously.
'Yes, I'm uneasy. But whether I ought to tell you why, I'm sure I
don't know. You're my own child, Janey, and you become dearer to me
every day; but--it's hard to say it--there naturally isn't all
the confidence between us that there might have been if--well,
well, I won't speak of that.'
'But won't you tell me what makes you anxious?'
He laid the tips of his fingers on her head.
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