The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 39: what you’re looking at

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

2 eee THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. re appeared, bearing a tray on which was 8 single wine-glass, while in her right hand she carried s large stone jar. This contained gin—or rather a compound of the woman’s own concoction, consist- ing of some of the distiller’s spirit, with a very large amount of vitriol and sugared water. She filled the wine-glasa, and presented it to the young girl who was winning gold. The lost creature took it and poured ite contents with avidity down her throat, giving a sigh of pleasure when she had im- bibed the deleterious fluid, The glass was re-filled, and presented to the female who sat next. In this manner it went the complete round —Madge Somers being the only person who did not accept the prof- fered dram: for of all her viess a love of ardent spirits was not one. The fiery liquor gave an unnatural exhilaration to the spirits of those who were already excited by the fluctuating chances of the game. But it must be confessed that the whole proceedings of this den were in one sense orderly enough. If ever a player attempted to quarrel, or dispated some particular point, she was instantaneonualy called to order by the crowpiers, and the effect was truly magical —for that woman hed contrived to establisn a despotic aathority over the frequenters of the hoase, and thus was she invaluable to her elder sister. An occasional oath passed unnoticed: but if anything really obscene or disgusting was said, it immediately called forth a.severe rebuke, accompanied by s threat of expulsion—in which menace the gene- rality of the players seemed perfectly ready to back the croupicre ; for is must be understood, as already hinted, that there were several females present who called themselves “res married women.” It requires but little effort of the imagination to penetrate the circumstances under which some of these “respectable married women” visited this den. We may suppose one to be the wife of a man keeping 8 potato and coal shed; that she had gone out to collect 3 few little debts owing by the poorer customers in that neighbourhood; and that with the few shillings thus gathered into her purse she dropped in with the hope of converting them into as many guineas. If she lost, she would go home full of excuses to her husbend: the debtors had not paid—she had fallen in with her friend Mrs. So- and-so, who had engaged her to supper—and hence her coming home so late. Perbaps the husband himself wasat the ic-house; and reeling home half-tipsy at a still hour, was unaware of the time when his wife had entered. Very likely a quarrel might take piace, originating on one side or the other: but what might be still more certainly reckoned upon, was that in the long ran the prin» cipal profits of the business would go into the pocket of the woman keeping the gambling den, and insol- vency would overtake the potato and coal shed. From the little sketch thus hurriedly given, the reader may form an idea of that class of “ If they only paused and reflected for a single moment, they would perceive that the keeper of the gaming-house alone néte the profit—and that this profit is to the loss of the gamesters themselves. But to return to the thread of our narrative: Madge Somers continued playing —at first cau- tiously, as we have seen her—then, as she lost, with a growing recklessness —and ultimately, as her losses increased, with a kind of desperation. She did not give way to any outburst of passion—she neither vociferated nor gestioulated: but her looks, longed, continuous, and concentrated sense of ter- rifio excitement. Now her eyebrows were drawn up—now they became : now her half- open mouth and the suspended breath showed the poignancy of her sus the nervous quicke ness with which she drew forth another note and hesarded another stake, served as a farther proof of the desperate recklessness with which she was playing. Ultimately, at about two o'clock in the morning, she rose from her seat at the foot of the table,—muttering to herself, “‘ Not a shilling left! no, not a penny!” Bat etill she thrust her long bony fingers into every recess of the greasy old pocket book, to ascer- tain if perchance a bank-note, or even a sovereign migh¢ have become embedded in somecorner, Nos it was empty—and she was indeed penniless. The remains of the last sum of money she had received from Lady Saxondale had that night been ewallowed up in the eame vortex to which hundreds and han- dreds of pounds of the woman’s money—the ill- gotten gains of long years of crime—had already found their way. “ Now then for 1” ejaculated that same young girl whom we have already noticed as being wn Fortune’s favour on this particular night: and well she might speak exultingly; for she was the possessor of thirty golden sovereigns——a sum that appeared to her a colossal fortune. “You will stay and take some supper, Madge ?” said the elder sister of the two who presided over that den of infamy. “Not L You know I never stay to supper,” re- sponded Somers: and then, in a savage tone, she added, “Come and open the door, and let me get away as quick as ever I can.” The keeper of the gambling-house was too well eceustomed to Madge Somers’ eccentric moods to take any notice of the present one; and she accord- ingly gave the inveterate female-gamester prompt egress from the place. CHAPTER XCIIL WILLIAM AND AXGELA. Ir was on the evening of the day following the in- able married females” who frequented the den. | cidents recorded in the previous chapter, that, There are at this moment several gambling-houses | between eight and nine o’olock, William Deveril for females in London; and many a small trades- | and his sister Angela were sented together in the man finds out to his cost, that his wife has been | allured to one of these pandemonia. Asa matter of course, the idea of those who frequent such places is, as we have above hinted, that they will convert their pence into shillings, and their shillings into pounds. Insensate fouls! infatuated wretches! ground-floor parlour of their beautiful little villa near the Regent’s Park. The weather was warm, even to sultriness: for there was not the slightest breeze to dispel the heat which the eun of a glowing August day had left behind after sinking into its western home. The curtains had within a few aoe (COIMUC DOO CS (COL