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Gissing, George, 1857-1903

"The Nether World"


Above the noise of the crowd rose a shrill, wild voice, chanting:
'All ye works of the Lord, bless ye the Lord; praise Him and magnify
Him for ever!'


CHAPTER XXXVIII
JOSEPH TRANSACTS MUCH BUSINESS


Amid the anguish of heart and nerve which she had to endure whilst
her grandfather lay dead in the house, Jane found and clung to one
thought of consolation. He had not closed his eyes in the bitterness
of disappointment. The end might have come on that miserable day
when her weakness threatened the defeat of all his hopes, and how
could she then have borne it? True or not, it would have seemed to
her that she had killed him; she could not have looked on his face,
and all the rest of her life would have been remorsefully shadowed.
Now the dead features were unreproachful; nay, when she overcame her
childish tremors and gazed calmly, it was easy to imagine that he
smiled. Death itself had come without pain. An old man, weary after
his long journeys, after his many griefs and the noble striving of
his thought, surely he rested well.
During the last days be had been more affectionate with her than was
his habit; she remembered it with gratitude.


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