Rosa Lambert — page 377: what you’re looking at

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

366 a a ee ee mm ee ae a eee sobbed convulsively. O! if I had been virtuous,) “I can assure what happiness was within my reach as the bride of that admirable and magnanimous-hearted man! -——but I was a lost, dishonoured, polluted creature —and for many along day I had not experienced so bitter a sense of that deep degradation of mine as on this occasion. Wiping the tears from my eyes, I looked along the lane: an open carriage with some ladies in if, | ROSA LAMBERT. ~- you, Dick,” answered Grayson, “I have my ups and downs as wellas other people. It’s not much more than a month ago that I was walking about London with scarce a shoe to my foot or a rag to my back.” “And how the deuce did you manage to put yourself in such good form as I find you in now P” asked his companion. There was a pause: and then Toby Grayson was approaching in one direction—and two or | said, “ Can you keep a secret, Dick ?” three gentlemen on horseback were advancing from the opposite one. “Well, I think I am rather famous in that I did not choose to be| way,” replied the man with the husky voice. seen by them weeping and sobbing there: for my | “ You have known me off and on for some yeays, tears gushed forth afresh, and my form was still | Toby; and though we have never worked together being rent with a convulsing anguish. I hastily | —for you always do your business alone—yet from opened the gate; and entering the field, concealed | what you’ve heard tell of me 1 myself behind a haystack from the view of those| ‘ You’re as close as the door and as down as the who were approaching. I sate down on some of | knocker of Newgate,” interjected Grayson. “ Well, the hay which had fallen: I again wiped the tears | Dick, I can trust you—I know that you are one of from my ecyes—I intended to remain there for a|the right sort—and, by jingo! I could tell you few minutes until the traces of my bitter weeping | such a strange tale L don’t know whether you will should be obliterated; for I felt that any one) believe it. It at times seems to me myself that it looking in my face could see that I had been cry- | didn’t really happen, but that I read it in some ing violently. I was presently rising to depart, | gammoning novel. However, it is true; and as when I caught the sounds of footsteps approaching on the other side of the haystack, and then a voice said, ‘‘ Let’s sit down here, Dick: for I want to rest myself after the precious long walk I’ve we may just as well chat here for half-an-hour or so, I'll tell you the story.” “Do,” said his companion with the husky voice. “I like a tale when it’s a true one.” had.” “Well,” resumed Grayson, after another brief Y instantaneously recognised that voice—and a | pause, “as I was saying just now, it’s not much shudder swept through my frame: for the voice | more than a month since I was walking about was Toby Grayson’s! The words he had uttered | London without a shoe to my foot. I had been were immediately followed by the sounds of two; very unfortunate for some little time past; and persons throwing themselves with lazy heaviness | the truth is, I was so reduced that I had sold my upon the grass under that end of the haystack | pistols—my changes of dress—in short, I had round the angle of which I was seated. My , made away with everything that I could raise a first impulse on recovering from the sudden shock | penny on. On the particular day of which I am which the presence of the miscreant had produced, | going to speak, I had not broken my fast; and I was to pass round the other extremity of the hay- stack and thus retreat towards the gate; but then L recollected that in the position which the two men occupied, I could not possibly reach the gate without being seen by them; and at the same time it occurred to me that their presence in this neighbourhood might possibly bode no good to- wards myself. if I remained where I was, L might perhaps gather from their conversation whether my suspicion were well founded ; and at all events, if they presently discovered me there, my position would not be a whit the more dan. gerous than if I at once emerged into their view. It was the broad daylight of noon: there were houses af no great distance; and if violence or out- rage were attempted, my screams would speedily bring succour to the spot. I therefore remained where L was,—seated motionless and almost breath. less upon the little mound of hay; and as I ex- pected, a conversation speedily commenced: but little indeed had I foreseen of how fearful an in- terest its nature would be. “Well, Dick,” said Grayson, “it’s a long time since you and J met: but it’s a lucky thing for both of us. Judging by your plight, you won’t mind putting something handsome into your pocket; and L want assistance for the business I have in hand,” “ Your plight, Toby, is a precious good one,” responded his companion, who spoke in a vil- Janous husky voice. “But you generally manage to rub on tolerably well in the world,” ee ° meme wer — ee ee ee resolved to do something desperate to replenish my pocket. Well, it was about five o’clock in the evening, and I was walking along Pall Mall, when I saw a middle-aged man, dressed like a butler or valet in plain clothes. Suit of black—white neck. cloth—white cotton gloves—and so on, all very neat and tidy—and he had a pretty decent watch- chain hanging from his fob. Now, Dick, I hate anything that’s low; and it went sadly against my erain to turn pickpocket: but what the deuce was I to do? After all, I consoled myself with the reflection that I was only in the same state as your bankrupt lord is when he takes to cheating at cards or swindling on the turf. So I made up my mind that the man’s watch should find its way into my pocket. And do you know why I pitched upon that identical individual as the one who should furnish me a dinner? It was because he had a vacant and abstracted look, as if he was too much troubled with some other person’s- business at the moment to be able to mind his own. He was looking uneasily about him, as if seeking for something or somebody that he did not rightly know where to find. ‘That’s why I pitched upon this particular individual. So presently my man stopped at a print-shop window—but I’m sure it was only in a mechanical way, and not because he really had any curiosity to examine the pictures: for he still continued as abstracted as ever. I shuflled close up to him; and while pretending to be ‘tremendously absorbed in a portrait of the Queen togged out in her robes, I got hold of my (E(e) 900