The Mysteries of London; or, Revelations of the British Metropolis — page 289: what you’re looking at

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

- @F LONDON, hey | pensated for my ignorance of the world—it was my love for you. ‘The idea of selling myself to another, had nothing in itself which was repug- nant to me, excepting as it regarded you. That vague and confused sense of shame, which strug~ ‘gled in my breast, would not alone have stopped me. But you were there—there always between me and the abyss. A voice, within my heart, in- cessantly repeated to me, Jt were better to die at once. Midnight came: the passers-by. became fewer in number. The closed shops presented only their dark shutters, in place of the dazzling light of their gas burners. I was hungry, and overcome with fatigue. I laid down at the foot of the railing before St. Paul’s, and I fell asleep. I awoke before daylight, frozen, paralyzed, inca- pable of moving. A watchman passed me by; I called him, and told him that I washungry. Ho! ho! said the man, dragging me under a lamp 3 and yet you are pretty, my girl; how can you be hungry? I staggered, and my tired head could hardly sustain itself upon my shoulders. But mever mind, said the watchman, you are, perhaps, after all, a good girl, though good girls are scarce in London; I will take you to a house of refuge. He'took me by the arm, and assisting meas he best could, he led me to the house opened for the poor in the city, where I was admitted without any difficulty. Every assistance was immediately afforded to me; I thought that I wassaved. Ah! how much did I repent having thought, that in London no one compassionated those who suffer= o Here I found compassion, regularly organ- ized ; charity, administered according to therules & | } GOICOoKe.conm