The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 288: what you’re looking at

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THE MYSTERIES OF THE QOUURT. 275 him a few cooters to flash about with—and set him up in Swell] Street, Nell would precious soon take ep with him, ’cos he's not a bad-looking chap by no means.’ “ Well, I don’t mind venturing fifteen. or twenty guineas for this part of the business,” observed the Hangman ; “and you can therefore make it all right with the Buattoner.” “ Agreed,” said Beacull. The Hangman accordingly produced his pocket- book and drew forth bank notes to the amount of twenty pounds, which he handed to his accomplice; then rising from his seat, he said, “I will go and sce Nell Gibson at once. She lives at Mother Young’s —don’t she 2” " “ Yes——where that old witch Mother Franklin is,’ seplied Bencull. “To be sure,—I know all about it. Ive been there often enough before. So I'll just go and make it all right with Nell, and will then come back te take another glass with you. Perhaps I shall bring her with me.” Daniel Coffin then quitted the dark crib. CHAPTER LXXIIL NELL GIBSOX. TunNnina abruptly out of Mill Street into the narrow passage that went shelving down towards the black ditch, the Hangman hastily traversed the ricketty old wooden bridge—pausing only for an instant to cast a Jook down on that stagnant water, the surface of which seemed like black marble as the feeble moonlight played upon it. Cutting straight through the fearful rvokery constituting Jacob’s Island, he passed over another bridge on the farther side, and at once plunged into the maze of vile, narrow, dark, and Glthy streets in the immediate vicinage. In a few minutes Daniel Coffin reached a street somewhat wider and to all appearances more respect- able than the rest; and presently he paused at a house whose shutters, blinds, and door were all green. A subdued light shone forth from every window; and the sounds of several female voices emanated from the front room onthe ground-floor. The Haugman knocked at the door, which was opened by a very stout red-faced woman of fifty. She was dressed in a shabby black silk gown: a faded neckerchief, that once had displayed the gaudiest colours, was thrown over her immense shoulders ;—and a dirty cap, adorned with tawdry ribands, was set awry upon her head, either through a lingering sentiment of eoquetry which had not deserted her though she had fallen into the sere and yellow leaf,—or else for the less ro- mantic reason of having been thrust aside in some scuffle. She wore a false front to conceal the hair which years of debauchery had tended even more than time to rob of its pristine darkness; the tip of ber nose was rubicund and shining;—-and if any other evidence had been wanting to prove her devotion to the bottle, it might have been perceived in the strong odour of the juniper which infeeted her breath. A trumpery mosaic chain hung round her great thick neck; and two or three flaring rings of base metal, set with great pieces of coloured glass, were stuck upon her very dirty fingers. ‘she exclaimed, “ Ah! She held a candle in her hand: and the moment the light fell upon the Hangman’s countenance, Mr. Coffin, is that you? Well, I raly am delighted to see you alive again, after hearing as how you was dead and feed- ing the fishes in the Thames. But howsomever you are not looking the wuss for your late adventures.” * Not a bit, mother: they did me good, on the contrary,” observed the Hangman, with a low chuckle, and with as amiable a look as such a hang- dog countenance as his own could posaibly assume : “besides which, you see, ]’ve resumed office at the Oid Bailey again.” “TI read all about it, Mr. Coffin, in the news- papers,” returned the woman; “and I was struck all of a heap when I seed how sudden you turned up again. But I hope,” she added with a leering smile of coarse familiarity, “that if so be I should come to Tuck-up Fair to dance upon nothiog, you'll treat me as a lady should be treated at a gentleman’a hands.” | “That I will, mother,” exclaimed Coffin, with a laugh which almost sounded ominous to the woman's ears, and made her repent of her joke as it sent a shudder coldly quivering through her frame. “ De- pend upon it that if ever you come to be taught the fall of a leaf in the Old Bailey, Vl make the hempen neckcloth as comfortable for your old neck as possible; and I'll let the drop fall su gentle under your feet, that you shall slide down as easy as a boy off a haystack.” “ Well, come in—come in, Mr. Coffin,” said Mrs. Young, somewhat impatiently, as if she had had quite enough of that terrible tragi-comic jesting. “Come in, I say, and wash your mouth out with « drop of summat short.” Thus speaking, the woman Jed the way into the little front parlour, where an immense fire blazed in the grate, giving forth a stifling heat. Huddled together on an old faded ricketty sofa, sate four young women, whose faces highly coloured with rouge, shameless exposure of the bogom, and im- modest looks, but too plainly announced their avo- cation. Lounging in an arm-chair near the fire, sate Nell Gibson, with one of her feet upon an old footstool, and the other resting upon the hob--while her form was thrown back with a lascivious aban- donment mingled with reckless indolence, She was however dressed more neatly and carefully than the girls upon the sofa, whose apparel was a mixture of poverty-stricken meanness and scanti- ness, disguised and embellished as much as possible by tawdry finery. But Nell Gibson wore a good staff dress, cut very low in front so as to display the really fine bust which had not yet entirely lost the first freshness of youth. Her arms too were bare: but they were plump and white ;—the handz were not only well made, but also scrupulously clean;—and her well shaped legs were provided with clean white stockings and a new pair of shoes. In fine, this young woman was altogether of a beauty that shone in remarkable contrast with the faded forms and worn-out looks of the girls upon the sdfa. For, alas! although these latter females were still but mere girls as to age, yet were they old women—yes, old, old women in sad experience, and also in the waste and ruin of those charms which, even at the age of one or two-and-twenty, required cosmetics to conceal the ravages of dissi- pation ! > | ECOMICHOOolKS.conn