The Mysteries of London, Vol. IV — page 293: what you’re looking at

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

er re ee eet RS SS Cte Oe I RG RR ar oy lly ne a em we Re NNN @ 258 MIB MYSTERIES OF LONDON. wero to pass tho honeymoon. Mir. Pomfret had recolyed tho price stipulated for his daughter; and hts honour—his commercial honour, We mean—was saved! Alas! how many marriages of this unna- tural kind aro constantly taking place In this civi- lisced—this enlightened—this Bible-reading—this moral country !—how many fair young maidens are purchased by old men's gold, the performance of the religious ceremony only adding 1 hideous mockery to a flagrant injustice! And yet how shocked ate those mercenary fathers and match- making mothers who thus cacrifice their daughters’ pure affections to the most selfish interests—how shocked, we say, ace they when they read that there nro countries in tho world where men buy their wires outright! Oh! ye Exeter Hall Saints, who send forth missionarics to chrictianiso the heathon amongst whom such barter or purehace prevails, have ye nothing to reform st home? Ts the Mus- sulinan who buys his Cireacctan or his Giorpian wife ina slave-market more reprehensible thin the tottering old lard or the nabob with his liver caten away, Who purchases an English, a Scotch, or an Irish beauty in the market of West End Pashton ¢ Go, ye Excter Hall Saints, Into that sphere where all is glitter outside and hollowness of heart within, nnd connt the many titled or wealthy re pluagenaries to whose corpse-like side fresh and blooming girls of Mineteen and twenty are bound by marrdape-ties! Are such alliances founded upon thore holy affie- tions which God hes implanted In the human broast?—or are they proofs of the rebellion which selfiel; interests consuinmate against ma- ture’s Inws and heaven's own divine prompling: ? Bat if we direct our attention to that sphere whetcin the industrious millions struggle with starvation, oppression, and wrong, do we find euch Enttaners of outrape against all that is natured, moral, and juts Do we dicorce the apricultural Isbouter or (he mechanic of seventy with a wife of nineteen 7 Out of a hundred marriages in humble life, there as uot more than one suchecire, And set the aristceratic, the wealthy, and the great aru ever declaiming upon the immorality of the poor! Imimorallty indecd "Tis you, ye aristocrats, Who sre in reality demoral- ised: “tis yon, ye oppressorr, Who woald rtand a far better clanee of winning oa place in heaven, were ye to imitate the humble virtues of the oppres ad! Ohl the rout sickens at the idea that a lazs, ineo- lent, intolerant oligarehy rhould be permitted to heap so much sbure upon the tolling, ttarving, deeply-wronped millions | But to return to the thread of our narrative. Tt was in the evening of the day on which Ellen be- came tho wife of Mc. Gamble, that Mr. Mitchell was reated at the open window of his front parlour, o wire-blind enabling him to note oll that passed in the street, but preventing personas outside from ceclnp into the room. Juconard was rittlug near hin, and racking bis brain for the best means to cummence a conversation to which he might give such © turn as to enable him to break tho news of the day to his father. Dut every time the yvonng man prepared to speal, his heart's emotions rose as if to suffocate him, and at Tast he was obliged to hurrs from the parlour and seck his own chamber Sn order to give free vent to feelings that cenld no longer be restrained. Searecly had he lefe the room, when two gantlemen—dwellers in Stamford Streot—encountered cach other precisely opposite the Mitchells’ window; and after the usual preete Os Se ee ee ee ee Ss ings, one said: “I am just going to call upon our mutual friend Mr. Pomfret, to congratulate him.” —" Congratulate him!” exclaimed tho other: “upon what event?”-- “On the marriage of his daughter with the wealthy Mr. Gamble,” was the reply. “What! you havo not heard of it? Olt itis quite truc, I can assure you. The eeremony took “lace this morning: L have the fact from the clergyman’s own lHps.”—"* But F thought that Miss Pomfret was engaged to Leonard Mitchell?” observed the other gentleman, evidently much amazed by the intelli- gence he had just received. —“Thush!" said the firret gpeaker, glancing significantly towards the open window; and, taking his friend’s arm, he drew hint a few paces further on, But had they stayed to enter into further explanations, it wonld have been all the games: the conviction that his unhappy son had custained a most frightful blow to his happi- ners, burst upon the mind of the wretched father ke a tornado on a traveller in the desert; and when Taeonard returned to the room, he found tho old mann corpse in his chair ! ‘ CHAPTER CLXAVITI, CONCLUSION OF THE WISTOnY OF THN HAUNTED HOUSES, Timer vears had elapced since tho occurrences just related; ard it was on a fine summer afters noon that a tall, handsome young soldier, in tho praceful undress of a private iu adtapoonrepiment, was walking down Regent Street. His countenance was somewhat cunburne’s but thero was about him such oan abe of gentility that, even had he been far less poud-loobing than he really was, it would hare heen dmpo able ¢o pass him by with indifference. ills firnre wos slight, but admirably forymd and well knits hic leps were straight as a dart; and hoe eatrivd his arms with that pentle ronnding which is ro cainpatible with inifttary grace, His whiekers were ftuall, but curling and ploseys and the slight tnonstache that he wore was quite enificient to turn the head of any giddy pirl—the more co that, as his lips were always kept the least thing apart, Uiat fringe ret off his fine teeth to greater advantape, His rich brown hair, worn short according to the regulation, stood out in small but matural curls from beneath his undress cap; and the romewhat dsrhty pencilled brows arched above cyes of deep blue, aud in which there was a melancholy expres. ton that did not howeser deteriorate from the masculine beauty of his person. Tis uniform was terupnlously neat: his boots wall polished; his buckskin ploses white as ruowj—and did he ree move those gloves, his hands appeared to be almost ns delicate In complesion as a Indy'’s. In a word he was the very lean tdeal of ao soldier; and na- ture’s ftamp of aristocracy was upon him:—yet was lio only a private—a humble private in ly regiment ! Wo rald that the day was remarkably fine; and it was at that hour when the fashionable world gocs forth to while away the timo until dianer, Regent Street was thronged with pay cquipages filled with clepgantly dressed Indies, and attended by domestics in gaudy liveries; aud the footways were likewise crowded, but with a moro miscel- Iancous company. For when tho daughters of fashion appear abroad fn the afternoon, the daulis- COA a ge LT TE = ee i ee ee et ee ee : | oe ee 7 GIOOKS (SO)