Explore "Gathered In" by Catherine Helen Spence on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
To go back a little in our narrative, after hearing from his cousin's own lips of the revelations which he had made at Wilta, Kenneth kept away as much as he could. He had given Sybil the money and the jeweller's receipt, and told her to summon him again if she needed him. The gulf between himself and Edith Gray, which he had known of all along, was now fully known to her, and she made no advances to him to give him any hope that she made light of the misfortune of his birth.
If he could have dared to tell the whole truth to Sybil, it might have been a comfort to her to know that he had a right to interest himself in her welfare, to work for her, to lend her money, to redeem for her her heirloom, and that she might rely in his absolutely brotherly regard. But no, not until her need was sorer, he would not betray the relationship. He must wait besides till her father should reply to the letter opened in his absence. The next mail brought the letter, and to Kenneth it was the greatest comfort and support.