We've had a long talk about it this afternoon.' Joseph glanced at his daughter, who met the look very gravely.

He had a feeling that the girl was of a sudden grown older; when she spoke it was in brief phrases, and with but little of her natural spontaneity; noiseless as always in her movements, she walked with a staider gait, held herself less girlishly, and on saying good-night she let her cheek rest for a moment against her father's, a thing she had never yet done.
The explanation of it all came a few minutes after Jane's retirement.
Michael, warned by his illness bow unstable was the tenure on which he henceforth held his life, had resolved to have an end of mystery and explain to his son all that he had already made known to Sidney Kirkwood.

With Jane he had spoken a few hours ago, revealing to her the power that was in his hands, the solemn significance he attached to it, the responsibility with which her future was to be invested.

To make the same things known to Joseph was a task of more difficulty.

He could not here count on sympathetic intelligence; it was but too certain that his son would listen with disappointment, if not with bitterness.