Page:Gissing - The Nether World, vol. I, 1889.djvu/156

 a half-open cupboard allowed a glimpse of crockery, sundries, and a few books. The walls, it is true, were otherwise ornamented than is usual; engravings, chromo-lithographs, and some sketches of landscape in pencil, were suspended wherever light fell, and the choice manifested in this collection was nowise akin to that which ruled in Mrs. Peckover's parlour, and probably in all the parlours of Tysoe Street. To select for one's chamber a woodcut after Constable or Gainsborough is at all events to give proof of a capacity for civilisation.

The visitor made a quick survey of these appearances; then he seated himself on the chair Sidney offered. He was not entirely at his ease, and looked up at the young man twice or thrice before he began to speak again.

"Mr. Kirkwood, were you ever acquainted with my son, by name Joseph Snowdon?"

"No, I never knew him," was the reply. "I have heard his name, and I know where he once lived—not far from here."

"You're wondering what has brought me