Page:Gissing - The Nether World, vol. II, 1889.djvu/208

 not the London actors, but advertisements in local newspapers gave it to be understood that they "made an ensemble in no respect inferior to that which was so long the delight of the metropolis." Starred on the placards was the name of Mr. Samuel Peel, renowned in the north of England; his was the company, and his the main glory in the piece. As leading lady he had the distinguished Miss Erminia Walcott; her part was a trying one, for she had to be half-strangled by ruffians and flung—most decorously—over the parapet of London Bridge. In the long list of subordinate performers occurred two names with which we are familiar, Miss Grace Danver and Miss Clara Vale. The present evening would be the third and last in a certain town of Lancashire, one of those remarkable centres of industry which pollute heaven and earth, and on that account are spoken of with somewhat more of pride than stirred the Athenian when he named his Acropolis. Clara had just risen to stir the fire, compelled to move by the smoke that was