"Oh my dear sister, I am so sorry."

"Don't be sorry, Jane. Take this wonderful chance you have been given from God. For you never know what may happen if you don't. "

Jane paced in her nightclothes, nervously chewing her nail. "We were young, different then. I am not the same young woman anymore." She tousled her hair gently. "My hair for instance. Where it was once long and brown, it is now graying and broken." She looked into the old mirror that she had had since childhood.

"My face. It is filled with lines and creases. Nothing a respectable, man of fortune would want in a woman." Cassandra laughed gently. "My dear sister, I know not of what you speak. Why you are as beautiful as ever! You have the look of a woman no more than twenty five!" "And if that Mr. Lefroy does not agree, well then he can take his sorry soul back to London!"

"I suppose you could be right, Cassandra. Perhaps I will go and speak with him in the morning." Jane finally laid her head to rest, thoughts of the wonderful things to come racing in her mind. It was settled. She would go first thing in the morning to the Lefroy house and tell Tom everything that she had been wanting all of these long, and agonizing years. She was so truly excited at the possibility, she had hardly taken a wink as the morning sun started to shine through her weathered window.

About this same time, Tom was preparing to depart for London. He glanced out the bedroom window to find that it was a dreadful morning. The rain had been pouring down all evening, and the sun seemed to be hidden behind big, billowing rain clouds. He thought once more of his chance meeting with Jane on the path. How he hated to leave things between them in such a way. But once again, duty called upon him in London, and he was anticipating his daughter's return from Limerick that night. Poor girl, he thought. She has lost her mother, a woman for whom she was so close, only to be left with him. He was indeed a good father of course, but life had just made him a bit weary, and somewhat depressed. Perhaps her smiling face might do a bit of good for his soul.

Meanwhile, Jane had hurriedly thrown off her nightclothes to slip into something a bit more becoming for the task she would soon undertake. She was so full of anticipation that she nearly slipped on the floor and cracked her skull. Calm down woman.




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