The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 108: what you’re looking at

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

90 THE COURT OF LONDON being detected in intrigue elsewhere, and discarded with bitterest reproaches, perhaps with blows. Sometimes she revelled in luxury, at others she was the occupant of a garret; now sitting down to a sumptuously spread table, and now pledging the last article of her clothing for the wherewith to obtain a morsel of food. ‘“‘ At length, when living for a brief interval in a some- what more respectable manner, but upon the gold which she had received as the wages of infamy, she was courted by a worthy man in tolerable circumstances. His name was Ranger. She married him. He thought he was espousing a respectable widow, and he was confiding, indulgent, and happy. Three or four years thus passed, and she endeav- oured to avoid those courses which had given her so many, many bitter experiences. But temptation came again. She was still young, still handsome, and in an evil moment she listened to the dishonourable suit of a young nobleman whom chance threw in her way. “For a brief period this intrigue was carried on without the knowledge of the husband, but at length his suspicion was awakened by something he heard. For he obtained a clue to the former character of his wife; he was thus led to make inquiries, and found, to his horror and dismay, that it was the veriest profligate whom he had espoused. The cast-off mistress of many men, the refuse of lovers too nu- merous to be easily remembered, the guilty thing whose crimes had broken her mother’s heart and sent that fond parent in misery and anguish to a premature grave, — such was the woman whom a respectable man in all trustfulness had taken to his heart, placed at the head of his household, and hon- oured with his confidence and his love. The exposure was terrific, and expelled, penniless and friendless, from the house of an outraged husband, the wretched creature found herself deserted also by the heartless noble whose fatal love had thus consummated her ruin. Poor Ranger died of a broken heart, another of her victims. But not one single shilling did he leave her in his will. It is true that her name was mentioned there, but in terms of horror and of loathing, yea, and with curses also.’ Here the condemned woman paused again. This time she covered not her face with her hands, but clasped them together, agitating them convulsively, shaking her head CORnNIC OOO (C(O)