Spring-Heel'd Jack, The Terror of London — page 93: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

own dear, darling self.” owe en wee up so suddenly that he nearly upset the old lady olf her chair. “ Memarry you! What the dev Why the woman’s mad! Marry! What! a& Woman who wears a wig!” * All her gentleness vanished. Up she rose before him. “T'll have you to know, sir, that if I do wear a wig, I’m as good as you, sir—yes, and better, sir—better. I’m a poor lone woman whose cha- racter you have assisted to destroy ; but I will assert my rights, I have asked for justice. I leserve 1t at your hands, and, Mr. Duppy, I will have it.” “Damn it, woman, do you mean to say you will marry me whether I will have you or no? You say I've aided to defame your character. Why, it was you who came to my bedroom—not me to yours. If there hadn’t been another place in the whole world, curse me if I’d have gone there ! ” Miss Frump burst into tears. . * Cruel, hard-hearted man!” she cried. “ Foolish old woman,” sneered Duppy. “ Where is your heart ?”’ “In my bosom, I hope, ma’am.”’ ‘““Where your manliness? Oh, Mr. Duppy, shall the world say that which is not true ? Shall the finger of scorn be pointed at us? Shall’’— “T tell you what they shan’t say,” interrupted Duppy. ‘“‘ They shan’t say that an old ill-tem- pered woman got some felldw to pretend to frighten her so as to give her a chance of an excuse for entrapping me for her husband.” - “* Do you think I summoned the devil, sir?” “The devil? Bah! I tell you it was some trick of your own to get a husband.’ “Oh! Mr. Duppy. Oh! you cruel man to suspect me, a virtuous maiden, of such an act.” * Tt looks like it, ma’am.” “Oh! you—you” There, don’t get excited.” “ Excited! Who could help getting excited at such words? I tell you, if it wasn’t the devil, it must have been that Spring-heeled Jack, and I believe he is the devil himself.” “Whoever it was, he played the devil with my night’s rest ; and all the harm I wish him is, that he was in hell,” said Duppy, waxing warm. “ But as to it being anyone that [ had got to do such a thing . Oh! Mr. Duppy, do you think that if such a thing had been likely, I would have met you attired as l was? My modesty is shocked.” ‘‘ Well, I certainly thought you did it on pur- pose when you asked me to marry you.’ ‘“T asked you to shield me from the scorn of the world—to save your own name from calumny and contempt.” “ Fiddlesticks!” said Duppy. “I care nothing for what people think of me, for I never take the trouble to think or talk of others; and you'll = < - o - - — Sar Se LLL, ST feel the same, Miss Frump, if you let other. people alone, and their business to boot. Those who can’t speak well and act well to others mustn’t be surprised if they are not talked well of themselves. Everybody would pity instead of condemning you if you deserved their sympathy ; ; . SPRING-HEEL D JACK: THE TERROR OF LONDON. ““Why, yourself, Mr. Duppy, to be sure ; your “Go to the devil!” roared Duppy, jumping ee - o — ~ eee ee ee ee - ad — : ——— s S7 but you know you don’t, and so fear thein. good night, Miss Frump.” “Mr. Duppy! And have you resolved to spurn me? Will not your heart soften ? ” ‘* It’s more likely to——. But, there! I thought you had something particular to com- municate instead or this nonsense about marry- ing, and at our age, too! You should be think- ing of your shroud at your age, and not a bridal dress ; for only think what an old fool you would look entering a church to be married— ha! ha! ha!” And making a dive at his candlestick, Mr. Duppy left the old maid’s room for his own. Miss Frump sprang after him into the passage. She seized his arm. ‘““ Mr. Duppy,” she said, in a tone of ill-sup- pressed passion, ‘‘is this your decision? You will not marry me ?” *¢ It 13.” : ‘* Then you are a nasty, hard-hearted, wicked old man, and you shan’t remain in this house. I give you warning to go at the 2ud of the week. Oh! you—you” Miss Frump could say no more. She burst into an hysterical fit of sobbing. Duppy looked at her a moment, shrugged his shoulders, then entered his own room. “The vile, base, wicked man,’’ sobbed Miss Frump, “to refuse to repair the injury he has done me, and then laugh at me for condescend- ing to look at such an ugly, deaf old brute! But, there! I deserve it for lowering myself so much—me, as could find a hundred gentlemen to marry me. Oh! I deserve it for stooping to a paltry, pensioned clerk. But he shall go. I'll let my rooms to somebody else; TII—U11-—. Oh! you nasty, wicked, cruel-hearted, deaf old rascal ! you—you Oh! oh! oh!” “Go to the devil, you stupid old cat!” roared Duppy ; “‘ but put your wig on, or you'll frighten him. ‘Take all your clothes, too, you stupid old woman !”’ © And Duppy flung first the wig, and then the garments of Miss rump, out into the passage, and slammed the door of his room in her face. ‘The last hope is gone,” murmured the lady, as she stooped to raise the things from the floor, ‘and I shall be the laughing-stock of the whole parish. But Iwon’'t; Vll run away; Ill leave the house, and go where nobody will know me. Oh! the unfeeling old brute! I—I could : . . 9 poison myself with vexation, I could! : And upstairs went Miss Frump, bearing her wig and clothes in her arms, muttering maledic- tions against her lodser. When she reached her own room, she opened one of the drawers and took out a half-pint black bottle, the neck of which she applied to her own lips. and then flung herself into a chair to give fess vent to her tears. | ~ 0, CHAPTER XXXI, THE RETURN HOME—THE LETTER—AGONY AND DESPAIR—THE SUICIDE PREVENTED. LIBERTY ! Who is there can have any idea of the true meaning of the word but those who have been placed in confinement ? WaNcomicbooksuco