eyes met. Sylvia still had the air of meditating a most interesting problem. Impossible to decide from her countenance how she regarded Sidwell's position.
'But why in the world,' she asked, 'should Marcella Moxey have left her money to Mr. Peak?'
'They were friends,' was the quick reply. 'She knew all that had befallen him, and wished to smooth his path.'
Sylvia put several more questions, and to all of them Sidwell replied with a peculiar decision, as though bent on making it clear that there was nothing remarkable in this fact of the bequest. The motive which impelled her was obscure even to her own mind, for ever since receiving the letter she had suffered harassing doubts where now she affected to have none. 'She knew, then,' was Sylvia's last inquiry, 'of the relations between you and Mr. Peak?'
'I am not sure--but I think so. Yes, I think she must have known.'
'From Mr. Peak himself, then?'
Sidwell was agitated.
'Yes--I think so. But what does that matter?'
The other allowed her face to betray perplexity.
'So much for the past,' she said at length. 'And now?'----
'I have not the courage to do what I wish.'
There was a long silence.
'About your wish,' asked Sylvia at length, 'you are not at all doubtful?'
'Not for one moment.--Whether I err in my judgment of him could be proved only by time; but I know that if I were free, if I stood alone'----
She broke off and sighed. 'It would mean, I suppose,' said the other, 'a rupture with your family?'
'Father would not abandon me, but I should darken the close of his life. Buckland would utterly cast me off; mother would wish to do so.--You see, I cannot think and act simply as a woman, as a human being. I am bound to a certain sphere of life. The fact that I have outgrown it, counts for nothing. I cannot free myself without injury to people whom I love. To act as I wish would be to outrage every rule and prejudice of the society to which I belong. You yourself--you know how you would regard me.'
Sylvia replied deliberately.
'I am seeing you in a new light, Sidwell. It takes a little time to reconstruct my conception of you.'
'You think worse of me than you did.'
'Neither better nor worse, but differently. There has been too much reserve between us. After so long a friendship, I ought to have known you more thoroughly. To tell the truth, I have thought now and then of you and Mr. Peak; that was inevitable. But I went astray; it seemed to me the most unlikely thing that you should regard him with more than a doubtful interest. I knew, of course, that he had made you his ideal, and I felt sorry for him.'
'I seemed to you unworthy?'----
'Too placid, too calmly prudent.--In plain words, Sidwell, I do think better of you.'
Sidwell smiled.
'Only to know me henceforth as the woman who did not dare to act upon her best impulses.'
'As for "best"--I can't say. I don't glorify passion, as you know; and on the other hand I have little sympathy with the people who are always crying out for self-sacrifice. I don't know whether it would be "best" to throw over your family, or to direct yourself solely with regard to their comfort.'
Sidwell broke in.
'Yes, that is the true phrase--"their comfort". No higher word should be used. That is the ideal of the life to which I have been brought up. Comfort, respectability.--And has _he_ no right? If I sacrifice myself to father and mother, do I not sacrifice _him_ as well? He has forfeited all claim to consideration--that is what people say. With my whole soul, I deny it! If he sinned against anyone, it was against me, and the sin ended as soon as I understood him. That episode in his life is blotted out; by what law must it condemn to imperfection the whole of his life and of my own? Yet because people will not, cannot, look at a thing in a spirit of justice, I must wrong myself and him.'
'Let us think of it more quietly,' said Sylvia, in her clear, dispassionate tones. 'You speak as though a decision must be taken at once. Where is the necessity for that? Mr. Peak is now independent. Suppose a year or two be allowed to pass, may not things look differently?'
'A year or two!' exclaimed Sidwell, with impatience. 'Nothing will be changed. What I have to contend against is unchangeable. If I guide myself by such a hope as that, the only reasonable thing would be for me to write to Mr. Peak, and ask him to wait until my father and mother are dead.'
'Very well. On that point we are at rest, then. The step must be taken at once, or never.'
The wind roared, and for some minutes no other sound was audible. By this [Updater's note: the word "time" missing?], all the inmates of the house save the two friends were in bed, and most likely sleeping.
'You must think it strange,' said Sidwell, 'that I have chosen to tell you all this, just when the confession is most humiliating to me. I want to feel the humiliation, as one only can when another is witness of it. I wish to leave myself no excuse for the future.'
'I'm not sure that I quite understand you. You have made up your mind to break with him?'
'Because I am a coward.'
'If my feeling in any matter were as strong as that, I should allow it to guide me.'
'Because your will is stronger. You, Sylvia, would never (in my position) have granted him that second interview. You would have known that all was at an end, and have acted upon the knowledge. I knew it, but yielded to temptation--at _his_ expense. I could not let him leave me, though that would have been kindest. I held him by a promise, basely conscious that retreat was always open to me. And now I shall have earned his contempt'----
Her voice failed. Sylvia, affected by the outbreak of emotion in one whom she had always known so strong in self-command, spoke with a deeper earnestness.
'Dear, do you wish me to help you against what you call your cowardice? I cannot take it upon me to encourage you until your own will has spoken. The decision must come from yourself. Choose what course you may, I am still your friend. I have no idle prejudices, and no social bonds. You know how I wish you to come away with me; now I see only more clearly how needful it is for you to breathe new air. Yes, you have outgrown these conditions, just as your brothers have, just as Fanny will--indeed has. Take to-night to think of it. If you can decide to travel with me for a year, be frank with Mr. Peak, and ask him to wait so long--till you have made up your mind. He cannot reasonably find fault with you, for he knows all you have to consider. Won't this be best?'
Sidwell was long silent.
'I will go with you,' she said at last, in a low voice. 'I will ask him to grant me perfect liberty for a year.'
When she came down next morning it was Sidwell's intention to seek a private interview with her father, and make known her resolve to go abroad with Sylvia; but Mr. Warricombe anticipated her.
'Will you come to the library after breakfast, Sidwell?' he said, on meeting her in the hall.
She interpreted his tone, and her heart misgave her. An hour later she obeyed the summons. Martin greeted her with a smile, but hardly tried to appear at ease.
'I am obliged to speak to you,' were his first words. 'The letter you had yesterday was from Mr. Peak?'
'Yes, father.'
'Is he'--Mr. Warricombe hesitated--'in these parts again?'
'No; in Lancashire.'
'Sidwell, I claim no