‘I’ve fancied it.  But it was only—­’

‘Well, you may be partly right,’ said her grandfather, softening his voice.  ’See, Jane, I’ll tell you something.  I think there’s no harm; perhaps I ought to.  You must know that I hadn’t meant to speak to Sidney of these things just when I did.  It came about, because he had something to tell me, and something I was well pleased to hear.  It was about you, Jane, and in that way I got talking—­ something about you, my child.  Afterwards, I asked him whether he wouldn’t speak to you yourself, but he said no—­not till you’d heard all that was before you.  I think I understood him, and I dare say you will, if you think it over.’

Matter enough for thinking over, in these words.  Did she understand them aright?  Before leaving the room she had not dared to look her grandfather in the face, but she knew well that he was regarding her still with the same smile.  Did she understand him aright?

Try to read her mind.  The world had all at once grown very large, a distress to her imagination; worse still, she had herself become a person of magnified importance, irrecognisable in her own sight, moving, thinking so unnaturally.  Jane, I assure you, had thought very little of herself hitherto—­in both senses of the phrase.  Joyous because she could not help it, full of gratitude, admiration, generosity, she occupied her thoughts very much with other people, but knew not self-seeking, knew not self-esteem.  The one thing affecting herself over which she mused frequently was her suffering as a little thrall in Clerkenwell Close, and the result was to make her very humble.  She had been an ill-used, ragged, work-worn child, and something of that degradation seemed, in her feeling, still to cling to her.  Could she have known Bob Hewett’s view of her position, she would have felt its injustice, but at the same time would have bowed her head.  And in this spirit had she looked up to Sidney Kirkwood, regarding him as when she was a child, save for that subtle modification which began on the day when she brought news of Clara Hewett’s disappearance.  Perfect in kindness, Sidney had never addressed a word to her which implied more than friendship—­never until that evening at the farm; then for the first time had he struck a new note.  His words seemed spoken with the express purpose of altering his and her relations to each other.  So much Jane had felt, and his change since then was all the more painful to her, all the more confusing.  Now that of a sudden she had to regard herself in an entirely new way, the dearest interest of her life necessarily entered upon another phase.  Struggling to understand how her grandfather could think her worthy of such high trust, she inevitably searched her mind for testimony as to the account in which Sidney held her.  A fearful hope had already flushed her cheeks before Michael spoke the words which surely could have but one meaning.