The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 59: what you’re looking at

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

° uf 38 THE COURT OF LONDON which convulsed the frame of the other. There was, more- over, a certain cheerful assurance in her strange and fantastic cry; and at each house where she stopped she had a pleasant remark to make and a kind greeting to receive. Ten minutes afterward, the baker came shuffling along, with his basket slung to his back and containing the hot rolls enveloped in a blanket; while at the same time the bell of the muffin-boy thrilled through the damp and heavy air. At this hour, too, might be seen the servant-maids sweep- ing out the dust at the front doors or scouring the steps, then pausing to nod to some acquaintance in the shape of a tradesman’s assistant, passing by, or perhaps tripping down to the iron railings before the houses, just to exchange a few words of friendly gossip with each other. Behold, likewise, the old charwomen bustling along to the places where they work, drawing their thin, scanty shawls as closely around their shivering forms as possible, gazing wistfully at the public-house as they pass it, and thinking how agreeable a dram would prove on such a miserable morning, and conning over the last bit of scandal which they have gleaned, in order to retail it anon with all the amplifications their ingenuity can devise. Perhaps, too, at this hour, may be met two or three of the daughters of crime, — miserable specimens of the frail sister- hood, returning home to their wretched abodes after having passed the night in some house of infamy, with their finery all huddled on in a manner indicating that the care which presided over the toilet ere they sallied forth on the previous evening has not been observed in the hurried makeshift of the morning, — lost, degraded, health-shattered creatures, with the natural pallor or sallowness of their features fear- fully visible even beneath the warm artificial complexion which rouge has given to them. Yes, and at that period of general rising and breakfasting throughout all save the strictly fashionable quarters of the metropolis, the half-naked, shivering, squalid mendicant may be seen crawling, or perhaps shuffling along, with his shirtless breast all exposed to the bitter air, his hair damp as if he had slept in a field, or wandered all night about the streets, his shoulders thrown forward, and his lank arms drawn in tight against his sides, while one hand is clasped COMICOOOKS. COUN