The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 359: what you’re looking at

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

| 348 THE MYSTERIES. the magistrate, drily. “But this young woman is | twenty years of age, and therefore able to take care of herself. The charge of abduction will not stand; and unless you can show me, Mr. Jones, that when your daughter was enticed away, she took some of your property with her, and that such property is now beneath the roof of these ns—-——” “To be sure!” ejaculated Jones. brella——_” ‘‘And my ten-pound note!” exclaimed Mrs. Piggleberry. “Qh! the filthy lacre!” moaned Mr. Sneaksby, raising his eyes and hands, as if in appeal to heaven. “Oh! the base cotton umbrella!” groaned Mr. Paxwax, in the deep trouble of his spirit. “Yes—but we must hear a little more of these things,” said the magistrate, who was evidently bent upon punishing the New Light leaders if he possibly could manage it. “And first about the ten-pound note, as that is the most serious ?” “Well, sir, ’'ll confess everything—please, sir— that I will—if you won't hurt me,” exclaimed Ann Jones, now crying in bitter reality—for she saw that the affair was every instant becoming more and more serious. ; “That's right—tell the truth, gal,” said Mrs. Piggleberry; ‘and his washup won't do you no harm.” “My am- “Oh! aunt,” cried the young woman, reproach- fally, “it was all your fault that ever I went among them New Lights—and you've brought me to this,” she added, sobbing grievously. “ Cuss the New Lights !” ejaculated Mrs. Piggie- berry, darting furious glances at Mr. Sneaksby aod Mr. Paxwax, who stood gazing upon the magistrate with the meek and sanctimonious air of outraged innocence resigned to all its wrongs. “Now if all this isn’t a reason,” exclaimed Mr. Jones, who was very fond of introducing his re- marks in those terms, “to make one ready to ‘ knock these fellows’ heads together———” “Hash! we can have no knocking of heads here |” cried the magistrate. “ Now, madam,” he continued, tarning towards Mrs. Piggieberry ; “ tell me about that ten-pound note.” “J will, sir—and 1 won’t deceive you,” said the good woman, with a curtsey. “ Please your wor- ship, I’m a respectable widder which rents a house in Jermyn Street, and pays rent and taxes as regiar as quarter-days and collectors comes round. I gets my living by lodgings—leastways, by taking in gen- tlemen and doing for them-—-which is the way I come to have them sneaking waggabones a-living in wy house and okkipying rooms that I might have let to their betters. But I’ve found ’em out now, the canting humbags !” “The poor benighted creature is in wrath,” moaned Mr. Sneaksby. “And, verily, she revileth us,” groaned Mr. Paxwax. “We are ia the hands of the ungodly, brother,” sighed his Reverence. " “Yea—in the power of the men of Belial,” gasped Ichabod. “Forty stripes save one shalt thou have on thine hide, friend Paxwax,” whispered the former. “aud a night and a day shalt thou sit in the stocks, friend Sneaksby,” murmured the latter. “Come—cease that talking!” cried the magis- trate. “ And now abonst this ten-pound note ?”” “Please your washup,” resumed Mrs. Pi berry, with another curtecy, “I'll tell the trath. It was a new note—bran new, as one may say— not a bit soiled in any one place, and erisp-like to the touch. Well, your washup, I gives it to my niece there; and, ‘Ann,’ I says, says I, ‘ you'll just step round to the tradesmen and pay the veek's bills,’ says I.—‘ Yes, aunt, she says, saya she, ‘2 will” —* Do, Ann,’ says I; and I gives her the ten-poand note. Away she trots; and I goes down into the kitchen to cook some liver and bacon for my dinner—for I’m exceedin’ fond of liver and your washup—besides its being cheap——” “The flesh-pots of Egypt,” groaned Mr. Sneakeby, smacking his lips. “A savoury mess, such as Ichabod loveth,* moaned Mr. Paxwax. “But I always puts an ing’an into the gravy, please your washup,” continued Mrs. Piggleberry ; “and if your washup will only tell your cook the next time——” “ The ten-pound note!” exclaimed the magis- trate, impatiently. . “This is not a case of liver and bacon, my good woman.” “No more it isn’t,” said Mrs. Piggieberry, se- riously; though with a dubious look and mystic shake of her head, as if she were not quite sere that the dish in question had not something to do with the matter. “Well, your washup, I gave the girl the ten-pound note——” “And I gave it to Mr. Sne-eaks-by,” said Ann Jones, whimpering. “It was agreed that I should leave home and go and live at his new house after a little while: but I wasn’t to follow him directly, for fear that mother and father and annt should suspect where I’d gone. But when I got the ten pounds, I thought it was the best time to go to him--as I could keep the money to bay clothes with. But I didn’t buy clothes—for Mr. Sneakeby was very short at the time, and when he knew that I had the note he asked me to give it to him. He eaid the Lord had need of it.” “Oh, Ann, thou canst not say that I took thy shekels of gold!” observed the reverend gentleman, with a solemn shake of the head, and an awfal elongation of the countenance. “Nor the shekels of silver,” added Paxwax, in a sombre tone. “ Yes, you did, though,” cried Ann, tartly: “and you both got so tipsy the same night, that I wae ashamed of you. But these two fellows, your wor- ship, were always drinking; and they sometimes used me very badly. I should have run away from them, only I'd no place to goto; for I didn’t dare return home. And now that everything has come out at Jast, I don’t mind telling ali I know of them. They're a scandalous pair of impostors, and that’s what they fury. added Miss Jones, working herself up into a “ Sister Ann, sister Ann!” exclaimed Mr. Sneaks- by, shaking his forefinger at the young woman; “thou wilt repent of this ingratitude to one who hath been a kind master and 2 loving brother unto thee !” “Oh! do send him to prison, your worship,” cried the girl, whimpering once more; “ for he seduced me, he did; he made me go astray; and if father will take me home again, I'll be good and steady in future.” - en AEs ElOOO® SS