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Gissing, George, 1857-1903

"The Unclassed"

By the by, do you ever see Sally?"
Ida looked up with a smile and said, "Yes; do you?"
"No; but I hear of her."
"From your friend?"
"Yes, from O'Gree."
"Do your other friends still live near you?" Ida asked, speaking
quickly, as if to interrupt what Waymark was about to say.
"The Castis? Oh yes."
"What is Mrs. Casti like?" she said, in a tone which attracted
Waymark's attention.
"Well," he replied, "it's difficult to describe her. There's nothing
very good about her, and I suppose nothing very bad. I see little of
her now; she's almost always ill."
"What's the matter with her?"
"Can't say; general weakness and ill health, I think?"
"But she's so young, isn't she? Has she friends to go and see her?"
"Very few, I think."
"It must be dreadful to be like that," said Ida. "I'm thankful that
I have my health, at all events. Loneliness isn't so hard to bear,
as it must he in illness."
"Do you feel lonely?"
"A little, sometimes," said Ida. "But it's ungrateful to poor old
Grim to say so."
"Have you no acquaintances except the people you work with?"
She shook her head.
"And you don't read? Wouldn't you like to go on reading as you used
to? You have a better head than most women, and it's a pity not to
make use of it.


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