To London Town by Arthur Morrison

SO with the days and the months Nan's sorrows fell from her, and their harder shapes were lost in her remembrance; and the new days brought a new peace -- perhaps even a new dullness. For this was a dull place, this street of flat walls, and grime, and anxious passengers. But what mattered mere dullness of externals when she had hard work to do, and a son to take pride in?

For Nora's sorrows, who shall speak? There was a hospital bed that she knew well, a pillow whereon a slaty face wasted and grew blank of meaning. And in the end there was a day of driving wet in a clayey cemetery, a day of loneliness, and wonder, and dull calm.