 all this kindness, I'm
sure. I hope you haven't got so used to it that you think there's no need to
thank your grandfather?«
    The girl and the old man exchanged a look. Joseph sighed, and began to speak
of another subject in a tone of cheery martyrdom.
    Jane herself had not been quite so joyous as was her wont since the
occurrence that caused her to take a new view of her position in the world. She
understood that her grandfather regarded the change very gravely, and in her own
heart awoke all manner of tremulous apprehensions when she tried to look onward
a little to the uncertainties of the future. Forecasts had not hitherto troubled
her; the present was so rich in satisfactions that she could follow the bent of
her nature and live with no anxiety concerning the unknown. It was a great
relief to her to be assured that the long- plans for the holiday would suffer no
change. The last week was a time of impatience, resolutely suppressed. On the
Saturday afternoon Sidney was to meet them at Liverpool Street. Would anything
happen these last few days - this last day - this last hour? No; all three stood
together on the platform, and their holiday had already begun.
    Over the pest-stricken regions of East London, sweltering in sunshine which
served only to reveal the intimacies of abomination; across miles of a city of
the damned, such as thought never conceived before this age of ours; above
streets swarming with a nameless populace, cruelly exposed by the unwonted light
of heaven; stopping at stations which it crushes the heart to think should be
the destination of any mortal; the train made its way at length beyond the
outmost limits of dread, and entered upon a land of level meadows, of hedges and
trees, of crops and cattle. Michael Snowdon was anxious that Jane should not
regard with the carelessness of familiarity those desolate tracts from which
they were escaping. In Bethnal Green he directed her attention with a whispered
word to the view from each window, and Jane had learnt well to understand him.
But, the lesson over, it was none of his purpose to spoil her natural mood of
holiday. Sidney sat opposite her, and as often as their eyes met a smile of
contentment answered on either's face.
    They alighted at Chelmsford, and were met by the farmer in whose house they
were going to lodge, a stolid, good-natured fellow named Pammenter, with red,
leathery cheeks, and a corkscrew curl of black hair coming forward on each
temple. His trap was waiting, and
