The Gentleman of Fifty and The Damsel of Nineteen (An Early Uncompleted Fragment)

The Gentleman of Fifty and The Damsel of Nineteen is headed as an early uncompleted fragment by George Meredith. The narrator, passing over Ickleworth Bridge, perceives a commotion as of bathers underneath the vicar's terrace-garden steps and sees the vicar himself disporting in the water, which reaches no higher than his waist.

One of the numerous daughters of the house appears in the arch of white cluster-roses on the lower garden-terrace, stands petrified at the extraordinary spectacle, and laughs outright. The narrator says the comic element is visible in all things if you keep your mind charged with the perception of it. A speaker advises that in the preliminary stages of a weakness you should be careful not to show your own alarm, or all will be suspected, and that if you want to hide a very grave case you must speak gravely about it. The writer says Miss Pollingray did the honour of accompanying the writer up to a bedroom and spoke searchingly about Charles.