The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 56: what you’re looking at

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

THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. io a WE ei \" r Le ae} aa , te | confused with a large potatiorn of brandy wherein he | | had indulged immediately after the departure of the | Gallows’ Widow. His countenance was therefore flushed—his eyes were blood-shot—and his lips were wreathed into a vacant smile of drunken satisfaction and tipsy triumph,—his appearance thus presenting a remarkable contrast with that of the determined and desperate woman who now conducted him as cautioualy as she could up the staircase to her own bed-chamber. But the carpetted stairs creaked beneath the heavy and uneven steps of the constable, and his bulky form occasionally reeled against the balustrade, thereby producing a cracking sound in the wood- work; and in rapid, low, but severe—nay, almost savage whispers, did Mrs. Brace enjoin him to be ache how he alarmed and aroused the entire house- o At length the chamber was reached—and Mr. i 41 HI i HM A) | i hi ea f ih Wil ui ha arr. mall] ht2 ‘ voluptuousness Whither the milliner was wont at times to admit her fayoured elect. Throwing himself upon a chair, the constable cast his eyes around the chamber, every feature of which he surveyed with that semi-vacancy which charac- terises the looks of a man who has taken a drop too much: but when his eyes settled upon the downy bed, with its linen of snowy whiteness and its pil- lows soft and luxurious even to the view, all the fury of his animal passions rekindled with consuming ar- dour. Rising from his seat, he caught the milliner in his arms; and, straining her in his uncouth embrace, he pressed his parched and heated lips to her own. Then, resuming the chair, he forced her to sit upon his knees. “You are uncommon handsome, my dear,” he murmured, in a voice rendered more than naturally thick and hoarse by the desires which were devour- (CO Poter Prucaley was introduced into that temple of! ing him; “and I knowed you wouldn’t play the | — ElOOe (CO