Page:Gissing - The Nether World, vol. II, 1889.djvu/94

 advertising agencies, and that kind of thing. I make an honest living, and that’s about all. But I shouldn’t wonder if things go a bit better now; I feel as if I was settled at last. What with having a home of my own, and you and Janey near at hand You won’t mind if I come and see you both now and then?”

“I shall hope to see you often,” replied the other, still keeping his grave face and tone. “It’s been my strong desire that we might come together again, and I’ve done the best I could to find you. But, as you said, we’ve been parted for a very long time, and it isn’t in a day that we can come to understand each other. These seventeen years have made an old man of me, Jo; I think and speak and act slowly:—better for us all if I had learned to do so long ago! Your coming was unexpected; I shall need a little time to get used to the change it makes.”

“To be sure; that’s true enough. Plenty of time to talk over things. As far as I’m concerned, father, the less said about bygones