The Mysteries of London; or, Revelations of the British Metropolis — page 212: what you’re looking at

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

PART SECOND. CHAPTER f, . Clara and Anna Macfarlane had been at the King George’s Head about an hour. They were stiil seated at the table which had been prepared for dinner, and were anxiously awaiting their father’s arrival, Erom time to time a stealthy footstep was heard coming along the passage, and the rustling of a gown rubbing against the docr, as if some one had stopped to listen, or to look through the keyhole. Ciara and Anna had begun at first, by chatting in a lively manner about their meeting with their fatoer—of him they had spoken so much; then they conversed a little about Stephen, and of those castles in the air, which young girls are so fond of building; then the solitude in which © they were left, and the monotonous noises of — which we have just spoken, produced a feeling of reelancholy, which, by insensible degrees stole — ever them. 4 Ciara wag serious and thoughtful; she looked with anxious eyes towards the window, through 7 which, at long intervals, there gleamed the red light of some passing steamboat. a Clara, said Anna, at length, in a half whisper, while she covered her face with her hands,