‘There will be no possibility of perfect faith between men until there is no such thing as money! H’m, and when is that likely to come to pass?’
Thus he epigrammatised to himself one evening, savagely enough, as with head bent forward he plodded to Red Lion Street. Some one addressed him; he looked up and saw Jane. Seemingly it was a chance meeting, but she put a question at once almost as though she had been waiting for him. ‘Have you seen Pennyloaf lately, Mr. Kirkwood?’
Pennyloaf? The name suggested Bob Hewett, who again suggested John Hewett, and so Sidney fell upon thoughts of some one who two days ago had found a refuge in John’s home. To Michael he had said nothing of what he knew concerning Clara; a fresh occasion of uneasy thought. Bob Hewett—so John said—had no knowledge of his sister’s situation, otherwise Pennyloaf might have come to know about it, and in that case, perchance, Jane herself. Why not? Into what a wretched muddle of concealments and inconsistencies and insincerities had he fallen!
‘It’s far too long since I saw her,’ he replied, in that softened tone which he found it impossible to avoid when his eyes met Jane’s.
She was on her way home from the soup-kitchen, where certain occupations had kept her much later than usual; this, however, was far out of her way, and Sidney remarked on the fact, perversely, when she had offered this explanation of her meeting him, Jane did not reply. They walked on together, towards Islington.
‘Are you going to help at that place all the winter?’ he inquired.
‘Yes; I think so.’
If he had spoken his thought, he would have railed against the soup-kitchen and all that was connected with it. So far had he got in his revolt against circumstances; Jane’s ‘mission’ was hateful to him; he could not bear to think of her handing soup over a counter to ragged wretches.
‘You’re nothing like as cheerful as you used to be,’ he said, suddenly, and all but roughly. ‘Why is it?’
What a question! Jane reddened as she tried to look at him with a smile; no words would come to her tongue.