For once, George Gissing lets himself be funny about the lower-middle class he usually wrote as tragedy. A cautious suburban couple take in a paying guest to help with the rent — a young woman of boundless energy, raw ambition, and no manners whatever — and from that moment nothing in the household is safe. Short, sharp, and unexpectedly gleeful, this edition presents the complete and unabridged novel, newly typeset and illustrated with 30 full-page color plates.