By
George Gissing
I THE FOLD AND THE SHEPHERD
II ADRIFT
III AN INDEPENDENT WOMAN
IV MONICA’S MAJORITY
V THE CASUAL ACQUAINTANCE
VI A CAMP OF THE RESERVE
VII A SOCIAL ADVANCE
VIII COUSIN EVERARD
IX THE SIMPLE FAITH
X FIRST PRINCIPLES
XI AT NATURE’S BIDDING
XII WEDDINGS
XIII DISCORD OF LEADERS
XIV MOTIVES MEETING
XV THE JOYS OF HOME
XVI HEALTH FROM THE SEA
XVII THE TRIUMPH
XVIII A REINFORCEMENT
XIX THE CLANK OF THE CHAINS
XX THE FIRST LIE
XXI TOWARDS THE DECISIVE
XXII HONOUR IN DIFFICULTIES
XXIII IN AMBUSH
XXIV TRACKED
XXV THE FATE OF THE IDEAL
XXVI THE UNIDEAL TESTED
XXVII THE REASCENT
XXVIII THE BURDEN OF FUTILE SOULS
XXIX CONFESSION AND COUNSEL
XXX RETREAT WITH HONOUR
XXXI A NEW BEGINNING
“So to-morrow, Alice,” said Dr. Madden, as he walked with his eldestdaughter on the coast-downs by Clevedon, “I shall take steps forinsuring my life for a thousand pounds.”
It was the outcome of a long and intimate conversation. Alice Madden,aged nineteen, a plain, shy, gentle-mannered girl, short of stature,and in movement something less than graceful, wore a pleased look asshe glanced at her father’s face and then turned her eyes across theblue channel to the Welsh hills. She was flattered by the confidencereposed in her, for Dr. Madden, reticent by nature, had never beenknown to speak in the domestic circle about his pecuniary affairs. Heseemed to be the kind of man who would inspire his children withaffection: grave but benign, amiably diffident, with a hint of lurkingmirthfulness about his eyes and lips. And to-day he was in the best ofhumours; professional prospects, as he had just explained to Alice,were more encouraging than hitherto; for twenty years he had practisedmedicine at Clevedon, but with such trifling emolument that the needsof his large family left him scarce a margin over expenditure; now, atthe age of forty-nine—it was 1872—he looked forward with a largerhope. Might he not reasonably count on ten or fifteen more years of