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The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft
·
George Gissing
4
A
happier
lot
was
in
store
for
him.
At
the
age
of
fifty,
just
when
his
health
had
begun
to
fail
and
his
energies
to
show
abatement,
Ryecroft
had
the
rare
good
fortune
to
find
himself
suddenly
released
from
toil,
and
to
enter
upon
a
period
of
such
tranquillity
of
mind
and
condition
as
he
had
never
dared
to
hope.
On
the
death
of
an
acquaintance,
more
his
friend
than
he
imagined,
the
wayworn
man
of
letters
learnt
with
astonishment
that
there
was
bequeathed
to
him
a
life
annuity
of
three
hundred
pounds.
Having
only
himself
to
support
(he
had
been
a
widower
for
several
years,
and
his
daughter,
an
only
child,
was
married),
Ryecroft
saw
in
this
income
something
more
than
a
competency.
In
a
few
weeks
he
quitted
the
London
suburb
where
of
late
he
had
been
living,
and,
turning
to
the
part
of
England
which
he
loved
best,
he
presently
established
himself
in
a
cottage
near
Exeter,
where,
with
a
rustic
housekeeper
to
look
after
him,
he
was
soon
thoroughly
at
home.
Now
and
then
some
friend
went
down
into
Devon
to
see
him;
those
who
had
that
pleasure
will
not
forget
the
plain
little
house
amid
its
half-wild
garden,
the
cosy
book-room
with
its
fine
view
across
the
valley
of
the
Exe
to
Haldon,
the
host's
cordial,
gleeful
hospitality,
rambles
with
him
in
lanes
and
meadows,
long
talks
amid
the
stillness
of
the
rural
night.
We
hoped
it
would
all
last
for
many
a
year;
it
seemed,
indeed,
as
though
Ryecroft
had
only
need
of
rest
and
calm
to
become
a
hale
man.
But
already,
though
he
did
not
know
it,
he
was
suffering
from
a
disease
of
the
heart,
which
cut
short
his
life
after
little
more
than
a
lustrum
of
quiet
contentment.
It
had
always
been
his
wish
to
die
suddenly;
he
dreaded
the
thought
of
illness,
chiefly
because
of
the
trouble
it
gave
to
others.
On
a
summer
evening,
after
a
long
walk
in
very
hot
weather,
he
lay
down
upon
the
sofa
in
his
study,
and
there--as
his
calm
face
declared--passed
from
slumber
into
the
great
silence.
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