Page:Gissing - The Nether World, vol. II, 1889.djvu/210

 “I’m glad to hear it,” Clara replied, veiy soberly.

“You don’t look as if you cared much,” rejoined the other, with a little irritation.

“What do you want me to do? Am I to scream with joy because the greatest actress in the world has got her chance at last?”

There was bitterness in the irony. Whatever their friendship in days gone by, these two were clearly not on the most amiable terms at present. This was their first engagement in the same company, and it had needed but a week of association to put a jealousy and ill-feeling between them which proved fatal to such mutual kindness as they had previously cherished. Grace, now no less than in her schooldays, was fond of patronising; as the elder in years and in experience, she adopted a tone which Clara speedily resented. To heighten the danger of a conflict between natures essentially incompatible, both were in a morbid and nervous state, consumed with discontent, sensitive to the most trifling injury, abandoned to a fierce egoism, which