The Mysteries of the Court of London Vol. 4 — page 154: what you’re looking at

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

rien, @ Se said to the Jew, “ Mr, Ikey, you have known me for‘-many, many years—you haye had a great deal of monethrough the business I have put io your way—and you will now take my word that I will call upon you to-morrow———” “*Tish impossible, Mishter Eirhmershon,” inter» rupted Ikey. “ My-orders ish poshitive. Tom, keep de door.” @ . “ All right,” growled the bailiff’s follower, plant- ing himself on the threshald. .. “ You will take fifteen or sixteen hundred guineas as a guarantee of my good intentions,” ssid Em- merson, actually writhing with the anguiah of his thoughts * But the aheriff’s officer shook hishead; and Em- merson felt a cold perapiration burst forth ajl over him. The condition of the wretched man waa in- deed imost deplorable; and visibly did his looks grow so haggard, even aa he stood there in that | public office, that in the apace of three or four minutes twenty Yearn seemed te have been added te his hfe! As a Jaat resource he turned t¢wards Varian ; and in a manner ao humbled and with accents so fall of pitiable entreaty that he now indeed appeared a spectacle well calculated to provoke contempt, he said, “ Theodore, I forgave you—cannot you forgive me? For Got’s sake, have mercy ypon me! Lf you say the word, I feel convinced that this Jew will take what I have to offer and let me go. You have declared that you are ehopowered by the creditor to do the best for his interesta———"’ “Viper!” wae the low but bitter—Oh! fearfully bitter and venomously malignant ejaculation which suddenly hissed a8 it were from Theodore’s lips and struck the wfetcheg Emmerson dumb at once, To be brief, the bill-broker, with despair in his heart aud frenzy in his brain, was forced to sur- render himself into the kaeping of Mr. Moses Ikey; and in half-an-hour he found himself a prisoner in that very same spunging-house to which he had in his time sent eo many, many victimes of his usury, . CHAPTER CXLIQZ. THE SHAM DUEL. e Iv was soon after six o’clook on the feilowing morn- ing, that a carriage and pair entered upon Worm- wood Seriibs,—-in those times, and gven down to the latest days, s famous resort for duellists. [t is at no great distance frem J.dhdon, but is nevertheless sufficiently retired and-louely for the purpose to which it seems specially’ appropriated; and when viewed at that gray hour of the morning, the acene presented an aspect more than usually savage and desolate. 7 Forth from the carziage descended the redoubtable Tash, with a pistol-cese-uader his arm, and w)th.en air of auch swaggering 1 | that it.scemed as if he kd come out inte the suburbs because London itusif was.too confined. te held him. He was fgi-: lowed by Lord Sackville and Dr, Thurston; and jenving tle carriage, they advanced to some distance, where they. were met by Gord Curzon, the Hon. George Macuamara, and In Copperas. Carzon and Sackville appeared tu take no noties of each other; but Captain Tash at once walked up dene ented pees we eee pee me ———— a - ere GO 6 ee powe sete eee oteginn Bote THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. . qeust say that in the midet of thp re too Le i a Pe |, et eee Me oe Pe miGolligh Pod > G wn 2 141 to Macnamara, and seizing him by the’ land, shook it so heartily that the geutleman on whom he thus bestowed this mark of lis cordialify, actually writhed in the Captain's iron grasp. “Glad to see you thia morning, my deur fellow!” said Tash. “Youand I have met before at dr:nk- ing bouts, and in one or two street rows, but never on so agreeable an o¢casion as the present: and my only regret is that we are not the priacipals instead of the seconds.” “Captain Tash,” said the Hon. George Mac- namara, somewhat coldly, “you mugt be well aware that we have no time to waste in idle com- ments, Core, let us measure the ground, load éhe pistols, and get over this business as soon as possible.” | “As soon as possible!” voviforated Captain Tash, isoking both amazed and wdignant: “you way as well tulf me when [have paid my money at the door of the theatre, that the performguces are to be hurried over witn the m: st imdecent haste: ur that if Tam sittiag down to a good dinuer, 1 must not detain the dishes above a minute. By all daggers and wounds! J, Kolaudo Tash, protest against such a ductrine ” “Well, well, Captaim,” said Macnamara; “you and | will not dispute.” “Egad! but I think that it is most likely we shall,” retorted the gallant officer. “The faot, [have not shyt a man for the lastsix or seven years; aud think itis hiyh time I akould do so, just to keep my hand in.” ~ “Be pleased to understand, Captain Tash,” said Macnamara, with wingled hauteur and con- tempt, “that 1 am no coward, but at the same time I am not tu be bullied into a duel with apy one.” nance becoming as red as the comb of a turkoy cock: * what do you meas, sir?” Bat here liorace ut once interfered peremptorily | whispering to the Captain that if he did not cou- mand his temper the post of,“ second” should be withdrawn from him: whereupon the gallant officer, though grambliog somewhat at what he called “the hbexty of the subject being interfered .| with, when merely seeking to blow another's brains out,” consented to proceed to the business of the meeting without farther comment or noise. Meanwhile Dr. Copperas aud Dr. Thurston had stepped up to each uther—shaken hands—end exchanged their usual compliments in thas, fethion which constitutes the “aside” of the. siage: namely, appearing to say something whieh ia not meant to be overheard, but in reality, batling it outloud envugh to make every word agdlive to all preseul, - oy ty a “ My dear Dr. Copperas,” sald Tharstion, “who would have thought of meting pou Here this morning aud under such chepmehances? Bat I gloom which this pending duel naturally grows ‘around us, nothing could give me greater: eushifaction than to fad that you are present.\ow the onoasion: for 1 am weil aware that. nb member of the faculty has devoted more attentign.to wounds by bullets than yourself.” ho “[nless, my dear Dr. Thurston,” said Dr, Copperas, “it is yourself. fudeed, as 1 said fa ry + t oe Sabet 4F =a » | y . “ Bullied !” roared Tash, his voice now sounding half across the scene of action, and his counte- om ton a ves ere ? CONNIE OOO cS) CO