The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 36: what you’re looking at

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

fHR MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. 33 Again did Chiffin indulge in a coarse bat subdued | whereof Saffron Hill may be deemed the guffaw; while Madge Somers, with her wonted im- | thoroughfare. Still she walked on; and, at length, perturbability, remarked, “Don’t be afraid—TI shall | on reaching Saffron Hill iteelf, suddenly stopped be looking out for my reward, and as it will be in | short. Gup e aap _ your pocket I shall not send you down into the/ “No,” she said, in subdued but vehement ejacu- well. But when do you think this business is likely | lation: “I will so¢ go there again! I have a daty to take place ?” to perform—and it must be done.” “JI only wanted somebody that I could rely upon | Nevertheless, there appeared to be an inclination to help,” answered Chiffin, “in order to take the | in this woman’s mind than that senso of necessary measures to get the two genelmen here | duty to which she had alluded; and while sho fain | as coon a6 possible. Now that I have seen you, and | would have obeyed the latter, she was irresistibly you've agreed, I'll set about it without delay. Per- {| urged on by the former. She advanced for some haps, if you was tocall here the day after to-morrow, | twenty or thirty yards, and then stopped short I should be able to tell you more. Or shall I look | again: a powerful struggle was taking place within up at the cottage ?” her. Bat ber weak point proved the stronger one, “No--I shall not he found there,” answered | paradoxical as the expression may seem ;—~and still Madge. she walkedon. On reaching the entrance of a court, “Well, I think it was high time for you to leave | dismal and dark as the mouth of a cave, she paused that wretched tumble-down orib,” observed the | once more—she endeavoured to turn her steps in Cannibal. “ You will call here-——eh ?” another direction—but her evil genius prevailed: “‘Yes—the day after to-morrow. If you are busy | she plunged into a court—and muttering to herself, (elsewhere, leave word with oldSol when I am likely | “Only just for one short half-hour!” knocked three to be wanted, and I will be panctual. And now, if; times at the door of a house at the farther extre- you have nothing more to say, I shall wish you good | mity. aight.” It was opened in a few moments by a female; | “Good night, Madge. But I say, by the bye,” | and a light glimmered faintly forth: but the door exclaimed Chiffin, “do you happen to have seen | was only thus opened to the length of a chain {fast Lady Saxondale of late—she, you know, that which held it secure, until Madge Somers men- me and Toay——” tioned her name: for in the darkness of that ouurt “As if I did not know perfectly well who you , her countenance was scarcely discernible even with mean,” interrupted Madge, fixfig ber eyes keenly | the glimmering light that struggled out. Then the pon the Cannibal for a moment, and then averting | chain was let loose—the door opened—and she ex- them. | changed 8 fow words wi oe eee ee had thus. “Of course—beeauss you stalled her off from | given her admittance. This was the mistress of the setting the detectives to work. How the deuce did | house—the presiding genius of one of the vilest you manage to have any influence with her P”’ dens which then existed, or still exist, in the British “We will talk upon that subject another day,” | metropolis. She was an elderly woman, with a the woman. pale ghost-like countenance, and small dark eyes, % . Fesponded i Yes: and thea may be——But no matter,” | glittering like those of a reptile, but looking lerger anid the Cannibal, interrupting himeelf: for he was | than they were by reason of the blue circles of the wfraid if he let drop any more, Madge would sus- | hollow caverns wherein they were est. Her features pect that ber ladyship was his employer in the pre- | were sharp—even painfully thin; and her mouth, sent business, and that if she found out he had been } surrounded by wrinkles, was drawn in with a con- promised the enormous sum of two thousand guineas ' stant habit of compression. Some grissly gray hair ‘for accomplishing the diabolical deed, she would not ' eseaped from beneath a dirty white cap, which be contented with the fifty guineas which he had added to the corpse-like appearance of her counte- offered for her assistance. Imance. Her figure was lean and shrivelled: she “Guod night,” said once more: and she wore a soiled rusty black stuff gown, and seemed to thereupon took her departure from Solomon Patch’s have but very little ander-clothing—for the skirt fell boosing-ken. straight, without the slightest bulging out from the waist. Altogether she was a bideous-looking crea- — ture—not merely repulsive, but a woman whose aspect wag sufficient to make a beholder afraid. A martes S502 capacity for any wickedness was as legibly im- THB YEMALE GAMESTEBS. printed upon that vile countenance, as if her cha- ' pacter had been printed thereon. Iv was about half-past ten, o'clock when Madge She led the way down a narrow, dirty, Somers emerged from the precincts of ‘Town. staircase, into a back kitchen. This place was not For a little while she walked on slowly and thought- more than fifteen feet square, and all the centre fally, as if pondering deeply on all that had taken was occupied by a large deal table. There was a place at Solomon Patch’s, and likewise hesitating as rude form on each side, and s wooden stool at either to what particular course she should pursue. But extremity. Two tallow-candies in brass stioks stoud Gy degrees her thoughts settled themselves into a ‘upon the table, around which were crowded-—in- resolution; and when this was once taken, she deed, huddled as closely as they eould peck them.- her pace as she proceeded on her way. svlves—a number of females, whose ages ranged Bhe reached King’s Cross, and passed down Gray's from the young girl of thirteen or fourteen to the Inn Read. In half-an-hour from the time she left old hag of seventy or eighty. Tho heat was stifling, Ager Town, she drew near the mase of streets, but the company present not to feel the | alleys, and courts which constitute thet vile distriet least inconvenience from that sickly atmoaphere,— COLL (C DOO — ———aa ee CS (COL