The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 357: what you’re looking at

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

342 opposite iaspnlees, the echoes of her light feet de- scending the stairs rapidly grew fainter and feiater until they ceased altogether.. And still he re- dition prompting him te suffer the young maiden to put to the test the only alternative te which hope epald possibly point. * Well, I tell you what it is, Mr. Melmoth,” said Toe a eae Buence at she expiration of a mipote: “that Miss Foster has gone away to raise money somehow er anether—aad of course I’m not obleeged to kaow or care hy what means. It’s just half-past nine o’clook—end I don’t mind waiting till eleven. My 'usband wont be home till then—and se I’ve got to set up for hiss. Bat if so be the cash ian’t forthooming by that hear, yor and your family must all tramp of this very night ; and if yon wont go by fair means, I shal] make free to send for the constable and turn you eut by foul. So the matter stands in that there way betwixt us.” Having thus apoken, and witheut waitieg for a peply, Mrs. Thomas borried dowa ateira, Meimoth clesed the door behind her, aad, tara- ing towards his wife, he read despair ia the coum tenence of the enbeppy woman as she sank back oa the low seat whence she hed risen a few minutes previously. “ Holy God ! what is to beeome of us ?” exclaimed the wretehed man, dashieg his clenehed fists with tersible viglence ageinst his forehead, ao that the blows sounded as plainly as if they bad been deak up in mingled piteousness and alarm towards the esuntenance which wore an expeession alike strange and menacing, and sueh as had never been eb- served upon these features until then. | cal CHAPTER XCVII. DESPERATION. Fer some minutes the pereseuted workiag man se- mained standing, drawn up te his fall height, in the midst of his ebildren. His ieft bend was threst into his breast—kis right was clenched—and his whole frame sheok with nerveas trembiings. Taer- rible theaghts appeared te sweep across bis coun- | derstand tenance—and his wife, who was a shrewd and in- telligent wounas, was seized with the enddea fear that some project ber husband’s imagination or that his mind was qn- The Kittle hey of eight elung te him on one skile —the little girl om the ether—end the sider lad ston’ before him, hesssshing that he would be com- |: forted. But the man shared wildly upea them; and the more sinieher grew the workings ef his features, the deeper became the impresaion in the bosem of his unhappy wife that he was revolviag some plan the nature of whieh she shaddered to cenjectare. “James,” she said at length—once more rising mas springing up ia : from her seat, and approaching him with the babe im hor arms—tbat babe which was giving forth a weak, plaintive ory, as if the band of death were already weighing heevily upon its frail and ema- ciated form,—*" James—my dear hueband—in the name of God! loak not thus npoe your children | eo — they are terrified — your manner alarms them. What ails you?—what are you thinking ef? Speak—J] implore you to apeak !” terribly erias of the children, ajl eave medietely hashed—aad they awe and apprehension apon the never seemed harsh nor unkind to “ What am I thinking of ?* he repeated—and the unmatural laughter sounded dread and oasinens within the foer bere walls af the dismantied, daperadinns if i do, if umast taka the consoquensset turned forth into the atrects ;—and I bagin to look upon myself as a eraves-spirited, pusillenimoss, degraded wretch who wants the sourage to seize apon those rights which a vitiated system denies him. Ged never placed us ia this world te starve: Hie comida not bave sent these innocent childres upea carth to endure all the agonies of that liager- ing death which famine is inflicting. Ne—no: tis impessiblei We have a right to live—and it wes intended that wo should live, because we were not ask to be bern. Lf we did, thea might we be j for eer presumption: bot it is net om own fankt that wo aze here ;—and since Ged is good and wise, He would not have called us inte being merely to leave us in the position of iutruaders Oe ae et te No—I begin to w- things ina new light. We have « right to receive a subsistence from the earth, inasssuck as'we have been placed upon it by Ged himself: and if this subsistence be denied to us—K work be refesed when we pak for work—if the bread of salntediola eumioen * Dreadful language !’’ nepeated Melmeth, band- COMmGboo pet opor the earth by our owa wish! We did net COMM