Letter from George Gissing to Nellie. Writing on his birthday, he thanks her for her letter and card: It is all the present I desire, to hear from & know that you remember me sometimes, a cheering thought in the midst of this huge wilderness of a town, where no one has any friends, & where one doesn't even know by sight - a fact - the people who live in the same house. Struggling for a living in London is very much like holding yourself up after a shipwreck, first by one floating spar, then another... For people who are not anxious about to-morrow's dinner life in London is very fine; otherwise it is a cruel sort of business.
Dated at 15 Gower Place, London.