Edited by Charles Aldarondo (aldarondo@yahoo.com)

The Odd Women

By George Gissing





CHAPTER I

THE FOLD AND THE SHEPHERD




'So to-morrow, Alice,' said Dr. Madden, as he walked with his eldest
daughter on the coast-downs by Clevedon, 'I shall take steps for
insuring my life for a thousand pounds.'

It was the outcome of a long and intimate conversation. Alice
Madden, aged nineteen, a plain, shy, gentle-mannered girl, short of
stature, and in movement something less than graceful, wore a
pleased look as she glanced at her father's face and then turned her
eyes across the blue channel to the Welsh hills. She was flattered
by the confidence reposed in her, for Dr. Madden, reticent by
nature, had never been known to speak in the domestic circle about
his pecuniary affairs. He seemed to be the kind of man who would
inspire his children with affection: grave but benign, amiably