The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 37: what you’re looking at

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24 all their thoughts and all their senses being absorbed in the occupation that was going on. And this was gambling. Yes: it was a gambling-house for females. None of the other sex were admitted there; and only | the those who were well known to the mistrers of the den, or who were properly introduced by old- ing friends, could obtain ingress thither. At the head of the table sat a woman who was as much like the one we have already described as any human being can possibly resemble another. In- deed, they were sisters: but it was the elder one, who had admitted Madge Somers, that was the mistress of the place—the other was merely paid by the first-named to conduct the gaming-table. We are thus minute as to because it is no imaginary den which we are describing, but one which existed at the period whereof we are writing. The woman who presided at the gaming-table, kept a regular “ bank ”—just the same as at the great gambling-houses of the West End, one of which we described in an earlier chapter of this narrative. The “bank,” which was contained in a of gold, silver, and copper money; and éhe woman who acted as crowpicere, had a wooden rake to gather up or push the cain about in the most approved atyle of the avocation. An imperturbable gravity rested upon her thin ghastly countenance; and if there were any personal trait in which she differed from her elder sister, it was that her eyes, though equally as sinister in expression, had a more steady gase: but when fixed upon you, they produced the horrible effect of a enake that glares intently upon your countenance ! The female gamblers, assembled in this den, were not entirely of that excessively low description which the reader may possibly have anticipated at the outect. There were several women amongst them who, by their appearanee, were evidently the wives of smell residing in the neigh- bourhood : but three or four of the youngest were prostitutes, whe plied their hideous calling in that vicinage, and who, when they obtained a few pence or shillings, rushed to this den in the hope of in- greasing by one vice the gains derived from another. If we were to take a peep into the front kitchen of the house to which we have introduced the reader, we should find ample preparations in pro- grees for a supper that was to wind up the nizht’s amusements. A large table, twice the size of that in the back kitchen, was spread for at least four- and-twenty guests. A number of biack-handled knives and forks, pewter puts, metal salt-cellars, pepper-castors, and mustard-pote, were spread upon a dirty cloth; and at an immense fire a horrid- looking old woman, evidently half-tipsy and who took quantities of snuff in the filthiest manner pos- sible, was superintending the culinary process. A leg of mutton and a leg of pork, roasting in frunt of the grate, were both basted with the gravy that dripped from each and which united in a large yel- low pie-dish set to catch it. Upon the fire, anether leg of pork and another leg of mutton were builing in an enormous cauldron, together with a piece uf beef; and divers contained proportionate quantities of vegetables. It may be thought that those masess of provisions were immense considering Ghat the table was laid but for two dosen gueste: atom eS THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. but when it is stated that each one of those gueste would anon be prepared to attack the provender with the utmost voracity, and to eat as long as the payne capacity would allow, it will be eren that preparations were by no means on too large a ecalo. We must add that this supper was given gratuitously to all the frequenters of the house, who might drop in between the hours of nine in the evening and one in the morning to take their chance at the gaming-table. The supper, thus provided without cost to the devourers, was a great allure- ment for the establishment: but the profits of the gaming-table were ample enough to permit this spread to be given nightly. All the upper part of the house remained unoco- cupied, except by the two sistere and the old cook: nu lodgers were received, the great aim being to keep the real nature of the place as secret as pos- sible. The elder sister, who was the mistress of the She had the northern suburbs of London there is a row of some ten or a dosen small cottages, built by means of that money upon freehold land, and all this infa- mous woman's property ! It was to the den which we have been that Madge Somers paid a visit after leaving Solo- mon Patch’s house in Agar Town ; and she was evidently as well known at the former as at the latter place—for on entering the beck-kitchen, nods of recognition passed between hereelf and the as- sembled female-gamesters. But few words were as all were too intent on the chances of the dice to have much thought for other subjects. The stool at the foot of the table being vacant, Madge took it: and for some minutes she watched the game with the eagerness of one of its most im- passioned votaries. All recollection of that duty which she had imposed npon herself, and which had more than once made her hesitate when on her way thither from Agar Town, was now lost sight of: she had no thought, no sense, no faculty for any- thing save and except the game that was progress- ing. At the expiration of about ten minutes, she drew forth her greasy old pocket-book, and pro- ducing a bank-note, requested change of the crou- piere. This was immediately given; and she staked a sovereign. She lust. Again she paused for a few minutes, ere she ventured another coin: but pre- sently the ehances of the dice seemed favourable once more, and s second piece of gold was staked. Now she won. Then followed a run of luck; and in about ten minutes twenty were piled up before her. With a kind of resolution she rose from her seat, and said she should go: but she was immediately assailed by numerous en- treaties on the part of the players, “that she would take one more chance.” She Yavered—the entreaties were pressed: she cansented—and sat down again. In another ten minutes the pile of gold had disappeared; and another note from her pocket-book was changed. The run of luck was now against her, while « young girl of barely fourteen, who hed commenced that evening with a few coppers, had ten or a dosen sovereigns in front of her. The game continued; and presently the mistress of the establishment, who had quitted the back- kitohen almost immediately after Madge’s arriva, (COL (C DOO CS (COL