'Then you will let it be as if nothing had happened? Grandfather--'
She bent beside him and took his hand. Michael looked at her with a
light once more in his eyes.
'Tell him to come. He shall hear nothing from me, Jane.'
'And you will try to forget it?'
'I wish nothing better. Tell him to come here, my child. When he's
gone we'll talk together again.'
The interview did not last long, and Sidney left the house without
seeing Jane a second time.
She would have promised anything now. Seeing that life had but one
path of happiness for her, the path hopelessly closed, what did it
matter by which of the innumerable other ways she accomplished her
sad journey? For an instant, whilst Sidney was still speaking, she
caught a gleam of hope in renunciation itself, the kind of strength
which idealism is fond of attributing to noble natures. A gleam
only, and deceptive; she knew it too well after the day spent by her
grandfather's side, encouraging, at the expense of her heart's
blood, all his revived faith in her. But she would not again give
way. The old man should reap fruit of her gratitude and Sidney
should never suspect how nearly she had proved herself unworthy of
his high opinion.
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