The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Whirlpool, by George Gissing

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Title: The Whirlpool

Author: George Gissing

Posting Date: July 7, 2009 [EBook #4299]
Release Date: July, 2003
First Posted: January 1, 2002

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WHIRLPOOL ***

Produced by Charles Aldarondo. HTML version by Al Haines.

The Whirlpool

by

George Gissing

Part the First

CHAPTER 1

Harvey Rolfe was old enough to dine with deliberation, young and
healthy enough to sauce with appetite the dishes he thoughtfully
selected. You perceived in him the imperfect epicure. His club had no
culinary fame; the dinner was merely tolerable; but Rolfe's unfinished
palate flattered the second-rate cook. He knew nothing of vintages; it
sufficed him to distinguish between Bordeaux and Burgundy; yet one saw
him raise his glass and peer at the liquor with eye of connoisseur. All
unaffectedly; for he was conscious of his shortcoming in the art of
delicate living, and never vaunted his satisfactions. He had known the
pasture of poverty, and the table as it is set by London landladies; to
look back on these things was to congratulate himself that nowadays he
dined.

Beyond the achievement of a vague personal distinction at the
Metropolitan Club, he had done nothing to make himself a man of note,
and it was doubtful whether more than two or three of the members
really liked him or regarded him with genuine interest. His
introduction to this circle he owed to an old friend, Hugh Carnaby,
whose social position was much more clearly defined: Hugh Carnaby, the
rambler, the sportsman, and now for a twelvemonth the son-in-law of
Mrs. Ascott Larkfield. Through Carnaby people learnt as much of his
friend's history as it concerned anyone to know: that Harvey Rolfe had
begun with the study of medicine, had given it up in disgust,
subsequently was 'in business', and withdrew from it on inheriting a
competency. They were natives of the same county, and learnt their
Latin together at the Grammar School of Greystone, the midland town
which was missed by the steam highroad, and so preserves much