The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 315: what you’re looking at

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

EXCITEMENT AND TERRORS OF GUILT 281 rendered the wretched woman a coward, and made her not only suspect her own actions, but likewise the construction which might be put upon them. In the afternoon an ill-looking fellow called at the fashion- able establishment in Pall Mall and insisted upon seeing Mrs. Brace alone. He would not state his business, nor yet send in his name; and when this doggedness of conduct on his part was communicated by a domestic to the milliner, she was struck by a mortal chill, as if death had suddenly seized upon her. For the first tremendous thought which the message excited in her mind was that her crime had been somehow or another suspected and that an officer of justice was coming to search the house. But at the next moment she discarded the idea as one which her terrors could alone have generated; and, regaining her presence of mind by an almost preterhuman effort, she commanded the domestic to admit the persevering visitor into her presence. The moment the fellow was shown to the parlour, where she waited to receive him, she recognized a man whom she had seen in Grumley’s company at Bow Street; and once more was she nearly annihilated by the tremendous terror which fell upon her like a dead weight. Sinking back into the chair whence she had risen, she demanded the man’s business in a voice which despair alone endowed with any degree of firm- ness. Her emotion was not likely to escape the keen glance of so watchful an individual as Mobbs, for he the visitor was; but as there happened to be wine-decanters upon the table, it instantaneously struck the officer that Mrs. Brace had been indulging somewhat too freely —in plain terms, that she was drunk. He accordingly said within himself, ‘‘ Grumley was right; she is a wery fine woman, but it’s a pity she drinks so precious hard.” Then, having hastily made this observation to himself, Mr. Mobbs proceeded to observe that he was a Bow Street officer, and that this was the reason he did not choose to send in his name or profession, as he thought that Mrs. Brace would prefer granting him a personal interview rather than exchange messages through the medium of the servant. The extreme civility which Mobbs contrived to throw into his manner, and the language in which he embodied the above very natural explanation, not only reassured Mrs. Brace, but | 6)(0)(0) (C(O)