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Etext prepared by John Handford

NEW GRUB STREET by George Gissing

1891

Part One

Chapter I.
A Man of his Day

Chapter II.
The House of Yule

Chapter III.
Holiday

Chapter IV.
An Author and his Wife

Chapter V.
The Way Hither

Chapter VI.
The Practical Friend

Chapter VII.
Marian's Home
Part Two

Chapter VIII.
To the Winning Side

Chapter IX.
Invita Minerva

Chapter X.
The Friends of the Family

Chapter XI.
Respite

Chapter XII.
Work Without Hope

Chapter XIII.
A Warning

Chapter XIV.
Recruits

Chapter XV.
The Last Resource
Part Three

Chapter XVI.
Rejection

Chapter XVII.
The Parting

Chapter XVIII.
The Old Home

Chapter XIX.
The Past Revived

Chapter XX.
The End of Waiting

Chapter XXI.
Mr Yule leaves Town

Chapter XXII.
The Legatees
Part Four

Chapter XXIII.
A Proposed Investment

Chapter XXIV.
Jasper's Magnanimity

Chapter XXV .
A Fruitless Meeting

Chapter XXVI.
Married Woman's Property

Chapter XXVII.
The Lonely Man

Chapter XXVIII.
Interim

Chapter XXIX.
Catastrophe
Part Five

Chapter XXX.
Waiting on Destiny

Chapter XXXI.
A Rescue and a Summons

Chapter XXXII.
Reardon becomes Practical

Chapter XXXIII.
The Sunny Way

Chapter XXXIV.
A Check

Chapter XXXV.
Fever and Rest

Chapter XXXVI.
Jasper's Delicate Case

Chapter XXXVII.
Rewards

NEW GRUB STREET



Part I.


CHAPTER I.
A MAN OF HIS DAY
As the Milvains sat down to breakfast the clock of Wattleborough parish church struck eight; it was two miles away, but the strokes were borne very distinctly on the west wind this autumn morning. Jasper, listening before he cracked an egg, remarked with cheerfulness:
'There's a man being hanged in London at this moment.'
'Surely it isn't necessary to let us know that,' said his sister Maud, coldly.
'And in such a tone, too!' protested his sister Dora.
'Who is it?' inquired Mrs Milvain, looking at her son with pained forehead.
'I don't know. It happened to catch my eye in the paper yesterday that someone was to be hanged at Newgate this morning. There's a certain satisfaction in reflecting that it is not oneself.'
'That's your selfish way of looking at things,' said Maud.
'Well,' returned Jasper, 'seeing that the fact came into my head, what better use could I make of it? I could curse the brutality of an age that sanctioned such things; or I could grow doleful over the misery of the poor--fellow. But those emotions would be as little profitable to others as to myself. It just happened that I saw the thing in a light of consolation. Things are bad with me, but not so bad as THAT. I might be going out between Jack Ketch and the Chaplain to be hanged; instead of that, I am eating a really fresh egg, and very excellent buttered toast, with coffee as good as can be reasonably expected in this part of the world.--(Do try boiling the milk, mother.)--The tone in which I spoke was spontaneous; being so, it needs no justification.'
He was a young man of five-and-twenty, well built, though a trifle meagre, and of pale complexion. He had hair that was very nearly black, and a clean-shaven face, best described, perhaps, as of bureaucratic type. The clothes he wore were of expensive material, but had seen a good deal of service. His stand-up collar curled over at the corners, and his necktie was lilac- sprigged.
Of the two sisters, Dora, aged twenty, was the more like him in visage, but she spoke with a gentleness which seemed to indicate a different character. Maud, who was twenty-two, had bold, handsome features, and very beautiful hair of russet tinge; hers was not a face that readily smiled. Their mother had the look and manners of an invalid, though she sat at table in the ordinary way. All were dressed as ladies, though very simply. The room, which looked upon a small patch of garden,