title: The River Bend: Collected Stories and Anecdotes
author: Wesley Hall
description: Wesley Hall, after retiring emeritus professor of English at Southwest Missouri State University, in Springfield, moved to Dragon Fly Cove on the Lake of the Ozarks, where he resides with his wife, Sharon, and their Persian cat, Malcolm. There he writes a newspaper column and surfs the Internet.
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  ![cover](resources/_cover_.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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  # The Gentleman of Fifty
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### George Meredith
  
  
  This page copyright © 2002 Munsey's.
  
  
  http://www.munseys.com
  
  CHAPTER I
  
  
  CHAPTER II. SHE
  
  
  CHAPTER III. HE
  
  
  CHAPTER IV. SHE
  
  
  CHAPTER V. HE
  
  
  CHAPTER VI. SHE
  
  
  
  
  
  
      
  
  
  The Gentleman of Fifty and The Damsel of Nineteen
  
  
  
      
  
  
  This etext was produced by David Widger widger@cecomet.net
  
  
  
      
  
  
  THE GENTLEMAN OF FIFTY AND THE DAMSEL OF NINETEEN
  
  
  (An early uncompleted fragment.)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### CHAPTER I
  
  
  
  
  
    
  Passing over Ickleworth Bridge and rounding up the heavily-shadowed
  
  
  river of our narrow valley, I perceived a commotion as of bathers in a
  
  
  certain bright space immediately underneath the vicar's terrace-garden
  
  
  steps. My astonishment was considerable when it became evident to me
  
  
  that the vicar himself was disporting in the water, which, reaching no
  
  
  higher than his waist, disclosed him in the ordinary habiliments of
  
  
  his cloth. I knew my friend to be one 