way in
the hope of encountering him as he came from work. He spoke very strangely. What
did it all mean, and when would this winter of suspense give sign of vanishing
before sunlight?
 

                                  Chapter XXIX

                                    Phantoms

Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Snowdon were now established in rooms in Burton Crescent,
which is not far from King's Cross. Joseph had urged that Clerkenwell Close was
scarcely a suitable quarter for a man of his standing, and, though with
difficulty, he had achieved thus much deliverance. Of Clem he could not get rid
- just yet; but it was something to escape Mrs. Peckover's superintendence. Clem
herself favoured the removal, naturally for private reasons. Thus far working in
alliance with her shrewd mother, she was now forming independent projects. Mrs.
Peckover's zeal was assuredly not disinterested, and why, Clem mused with
herself, should the fruits of strategy be shared? Her husband's father could
not, she saw every reason to believe, be much longer for this world. How his
property was to be divided she had no means of discovering; Joseph professed to
have no accurate information, but as a matter of course he was deceiving her.
Should he inherit a considerable sum, it was more than probable he would think
of again quitting his native land - and without encumbrances. That movement must
somehow be guarded against; how, it was difficult as yet to determine. In the
next place, Jane was sure to take a large share of the fortune. To that Clem
strongly objected, both on abstract grounds and because she regarded Jane with a
savage hatred - a hatred which had its roots in the time of Jane's childhood,
and which had grown in proportion as the girl reaped happiness from life. The
necessity of cloaking this sentiment had not, you may be sure, tended to
mitigate it. Joseph said that there was no longer any fear of a speedy marriage
between Jane and Kirkwood, but that such a marriage would come off some day, -
if not prevented - Clem held to be a matter of certainty. Sidney Kirkwood was a
wide-awake young man; of course he had his satisfactory reasons for delay. Now
Clem's hatred of Sidney was, from of old, only less than that wherewith she
regarded Jane. To frustrate the hopes of that couple would be a gratification
worth a good deal of risk.
    She heard nothing of what had befallen Clara Hewett until the latter's
return home, and then not from her husband. Joseph and Scawthorne, foiled by
that event in an ingenious scheme