She told him, too, of
Pennyloaf's humble security.
'You have kept well all the year?' he asked.
'And you too, I hope?'
Then they bade each other good-bye. . . .
In each life little for congratulation. He with the ambitions of his
youth frustrated; neither an artist, nor a leader of men in the
battle for justice. She, no saviour of society by the force of a
superb example; no daughter of the people, holding wealth in trust
for the people's needs. Yet to both was their work given. Unmarked,
unencouraged save by their love of uprightness and mercy, they stood
by the side of those more hapless, brought some comfort to hearts
less courageous than their own. Where they abode it was not all
dark. Sorrow certainly awaited them, perchance defeat in even the
humble aims that they had set themselves; but at least their lives
would remain a protest against those brute forces of society which
fill with wreck the abysses of the nether world.
End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Nether World
by George Gissing
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