Page:Gissing - The Nether World, vol. I, 1889.djvu/59

 reasons why he couldn't get work was his lookin' too old."

"An' so it was," exclaimed Hewett, with an angry vehemence which at once declared his position and revealed much of his history. "So it was! My hair was a bit turned, an' now-a-days there's no chance for old men. Ask any one you like. Why, there's Sam Lang couldn't even get a job at gardenin' 'cause his hair was a bit turned. It was him as told me what to do. 'Dye your hair, Jack,' he says; 'it's what I've had to myself,' he says. 'They won't have old men now-a-days, at no price.' Why, there's Jarvey the painter; you know him, Sidney. His guvnor sent him on a job to Jones's place, an' they sent him back. 'Why, he's an old man,' they says. 'What good's a man of that age for liftin' ladders about?' An' Jarvey's no older than me."

Sidney knitted his brows. He had heard the complaint from too many men to be able to dispute its justice.

"When there's twice too many of us for