 or two, and made him understand how
strong my wish is. He dreads lest we should be parted, but I hope I shall never
have to leave him. And then, of course, father is not very well able to advise
me - about work, I mean. You have more experience. I am so helpless. Oh, if you
knew how helpless I feel!«
    »If you really wish it, I will talk with your father -«
    »Indeed, I do wish it. My coming to live here has made everything so
uncomfortable for him and the children. Even his friends can't visit him as they
would; I feel that, though he won't admit that it's made any difference.«
    Sidney looked to the ground. He heard her voice falter as it continued.
    »If I'm to live here still, it mustn't be at the cost of all his comfort. I
keep almost always in the one room. I shouldn't be in the way if anyone came.
I've been afraid, Mr. Kirkwood, that perhaps you feared to come lest, whilst I
was not very well, it might have been an inconvenience to us. Please don't think
that. I shall never - see either friends or strangers unless it is absolutely
needful.«
    There was silence.
    »You do feel much better, I hope?« fell from Sidney's lips.
    »Much stronger. It's only my mind; everything is so dark to me. You know how
little patience I always had. It was enough if any one said, You must do this,
or You must put up with that - at once I resisted. It was my nature; I couldn't
bear the feeling of control. That's what I've had to struggle with since I
recovered from my delirium at the hospital, and hadn't even the hope of dying.
Can you put yourself in my place, and imagine what I have suffered?«
    Sidney was silent. His own life had not been without its passionate
miseries, but the modulations of this voice which had no light of countenance to
aid it raised him above the plane of common experience and made actual to him
the feelings he knew only in romantic story. He could not stir, lest the
slightest sound should jar on her speaking. His breath rose visibly upon the
chill air, but the discomfort of the room was as indifferent to him as to his
companion. Clara rose, as if impelled by mental anguish;
