The Crown of Life

"Irene!" "You have come to say good-night? See how our thoughts chime; I guessed you would." Her voice had a soft, caressing tremor; her hand sought his. "Irene! You have given me a new life, a new soul!" Her lips were near as she answered him. "Rest from your sorrows, my dearest. I love you! I love you!"

City misfit, far ideal, vocation strain, and breakfast crisis resolve into mutual descent and declaration — love plot climbed rather than bargained — so plot scores 87.

Clad for a long railway journey on a hot day; a grey figure of fluent lines, of composedly decisive movements; a little felt hat close-fitting to the spirited head, leaving full and frank the soft rounded face, with its quietly observant eyes, its lips of contained humour--Irene Derwent stepped from a cab at Euston Station…

Contained humour and decisive movement individuate Irene before dialogue — against Piers's absent look — so cast scores 86.

On the journey homeward, and for two or three days after, Piers held argument with his passions, trying to persuade himself that he had in truth lost nothing, inasmuch as his love had never been founded upon a reasonable hope.

Thirty-seven chapters; declaration accelerates, but days of inner argument dilate the middle, so pace scores 83.

Amid the throng of suburban arrivals volleyed forth from Waterloo Station on a May morning in the year '86, moved a slim, dark, absent-looking young man of one-and-twenty, whose name was Piers Otway. In regard to costume--blameless silk hat, and dark morning coat with lighter trousers--the City would not have disowned him, but he had not the City countenance.

'Volleyed forth' throng against absent look — exact late style naming misfit vocation — so prose scores 90.

She sat by her open window, which looked over the dale to the long high ridge of moors, softly drawn against a moonlit sky. Far below sounded the rushing Ure, and at moments there came upon the fitful breeze a deeper music, that of the falls at Aysgarth, miles away.

Stations, breakfast-room, Yorkshire dale and falls — England as transit and waiting climate toward the crown, so world scores 85.

The rush for omnibus seats left him unconcerned; clear of the railway station, he walked at a leisurely pace…

Unconcern amid omnibus rush establishes misfit before Irene or crown theme — inviting character comedy — so hook scores 87.

In a youthful poem, he had sung of Love as "the crown of life," believing it fervently; he believed it now with a fervour more intense, because more spiritual. That crown he had missed, even as did the multitude of mankind. Only to the elect is it granted--the few chosen, where all are called.

Love as spiritual election against market cynicism — late counterweight in Gissing's oeuvre — so innov scores 88.

He whispered the beloved name, and it gave him peace; such peace as follows upon the hallowing of a profound passion, justified of reason, and proof under the hand of time.

After Irene's 'I love you,' Piers holds pity for those who miss the crown then finds peace — passion justified — so ending scores 91.