The Mysteries of the Court of London Vol. 7 — page 266: what you’re looking at

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

8 THN WYSTRRIGS OF THE COURT. | 253 The young girl still bore her sire’s treatment in | charms, and whose errore had been those of the unconipleining silence, and with an air of dull and | head rather than of the mind, should. now expe- listless apathy. He resolved to remain at the | rience so mush deep affliction. But thus it was. public-house until his brother should return; and thus a week went by. During this interval | she Finette was most attentive to her father in all the ministrations which es a daughter she could digplay: but she never once answered him whep he reproached her—nor did she again beseech his forgiveness. He began to think that he had mis- taken her disposition—that she wae not really in- different nor apathetio—but that her spirit was broken. He therefore thought that he had said || enough to her—probably td much; and he sud denly desisted from his upbraidings, though he was of too dogged and morose a nature to volunteer the pardon which was now no longer asked. The brother returned from Paris, having expe- rienced a considerable pecuniary loss by the busi- ness which had taken him thither. He himoelf was of a rugged and unfeeling dispositien, devoted to money-grubbing pursuits: he showed no incli- nation to assist his brother, with his purse, though he was ready enough to proffer his cognaei, and | i likewise to lecture Finette severely for her own miscunduct, He somewhat churlishly sald that his relations might stay with him for a short time, until they could settle tAemselves in some manner; and thus they shifted etheir quarters to his bouse from the tavern where they had been ataying. Finette’s father had in the meanwhile been looking about for some employment: but he could find no- thing that suited him. There was a shop doing a good little business to be disposed of; and i¢ was in a trade which the ex-turnkey and his daughter could manage: but the purchase-money wes fifty pounds, and Finette’s father had only about fifteen left. His brother would not advance him a single franc; and thus he found himeelf compalled to renounge the hope of obtaining a business which Would have afforded. him a better livelihood than even tit post of turnkey from yrhich he had so lately been discharged. One afternoon—abont ten daymafter the arrival of Finette and her father in the town of which we that the It immediately struck De by ciroum- are speaking—the young dameel atrolled forth-in a very disconsolate mood. Feeling that her, parent and herself were regarded as a burden upon the means of her avaricious uncle, she longed to use her own industry for the purpose of earning some- thing. Site had on the previous day applied in various quarters for needie-work—but without being enabled to obtain it. She’now renewed her applications— but atill without success. At two or three warehouses which she entered, she experi: enced overtures on the part of insolent clerks or masters which brought the blood up to her cheeks ; and on one cocasion so grose was the insult she re- ceived, she burst into tears and went weeping along the street. Perceiving that she was the ob- ject of attention with the -by—and unable to restrain her sobs—she issued out of the town towards a grove which bounded it in thag particular direction. There she sat down upon a bank where some autumnal flowers bespangled the grass; and wiping away her teats, she fell into a profound reverie. in boar ory hea “dlotceuaing > think that gly pretty; was.d to @ young endowed with eo many personal 3 young git! had either been compe stances, or else prompted by her infatuation, to abandon her home and launch herself forth in the world in search of him. His natural pride end conceit red thie belief in a moment; and in other it was certainly netural enough, when he found her so far from her native place— the more especially as it never struck De Margaux that her father might have lost his situation through his daughter's imprudence. He did not however immediately advance towards hers he stood still for a few momenta to see if she resog- nised him. But after simply glancing at De Margaux, Finette averted her eyes; she hed not the remotess suapiqion that in the comparatively miserable object before her, she beheld the hand- some, elegant-mannered, fascinating individual who for several hours had obtained over her heart a de- gree of influence quch‘as in ordinary cases an acquaintance of months aud years could scarcely have ep ° De Merguar looked around: Finette was evi- reverio—she was apparently in a distremed state of mind. De Macreas therefoce fait convinced ECOMRniclacae SS (CO)