The Nether World by George Gissing CONTENTS CHAPTER I A THRALL OF THRALLS II A FRIEND IN REQUEST III A SUPERFLUOUS FAMILY IV CLARA AND JANE V JANE IS VISITED VI GLIMPSES OF THE PAST VII MRS. BYASS’S LODGINGS VIII PENNYLOAF CANDY IX PATHOLOGICAL X THE LAST COMBAT XI A DISAPPOINTMENT XII ‘IO SATURNALIA!’ XIII THE BRINGER OF ILL NEWS XIV A WELCOME GUEST XV SUNLIGHT IN DREARY PLACES XVI DIALOGUE AND COMMENT XVII CLEM MAKES A DISCLOSURE XVIII THE JOKE IS COMPLETED XIX A RETREAT XX A VISION OF NOBLE THINGS XXI DEATH THE RECONCILER XXII WATCHING FROM AMBUSH XXIII ON THE EVE OF TRIUMPH XXIV THE FAMILY HISTORY PROGRESSES XXV A DOUBLE CONSECRATION XXVI SIDNEY’S STRUGGLE XXVII CLARA’S RETURN XXVIII THE SOUP-KITCHEN XXIX PHANTOMS XXX ON A BARREN SHORE XXXI WOMAN AND ACTRESS XXXII A HAVEN XXXIII A FALL FROM THE IDEAL XXXIV THE DEBT REPAID XXXV THE TREASURY UNLOCKED XXXVI THE HEIR XXXVII MAD JACK’S DREAM XXXVIII JOSEPH TRANSACTS MUCH BUSINESS XXXIX SIDNEY XL JANE CHAPTER I A THRALL OF THRALLS In the troubled twilight of a March evening ten years ago, an old man, whose equipment and bearing suggested that he was fresh from travel, walked slowly across Clerkenwell Green, and by the graveyard of St. James’s Church stood for a moment looking about him. His age could not be far from seventy, but, despite the stoop of his shoulders, he gave little sign of failing under the burden of years; his sober step indicated gravity of character rather than bodily feebleness, and his grasp of a stout stick was not such as bespeaks need of support. His attire was neither that of a man of leisure, nor of the kind usually worn by English mechanics. Instead of coat and waistcoat, he wore a garment something like a fisherman’s guernsey, and over this a coarse short cloak, picturesque in appearance as it was buffeted by the wind. His trousers were of moleskin; his boots reached almost to his knees; for head-covering he had the cheapest kind of undyed felt, its form exactly that of the old petasus. To say that his aspect was Venerable would serve to present him in a measure, yet would not be wholly accurate, for there was too much of past struggle and present anxiety in his countenance to permit full expression of the natural dignity of the features. It was a fine face and might have been distinctly noble, but circumstances had marred the purpose of Nature; you perceived that his cares had too often been of the kind which are created by ignoble necessities, such as leave to most men of his standing a bare humanity of visage. He had long thin white hair; his beard was short and merely grizzled. In his left hand he carried a bundle, which probably contained clothing.