The Seamstress; or, The White Slave of England — page 14: what you’re looking at

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

THD SEAMSTRESS. 7 therefore told my young person who carries parcels for me, that she need not come any more until my return. I quite forgot last night when I thus dismissed her, that this robe was to be brought to me to-day; and therefore, to come to the point at once, I have no one at hand just at this instant to convey it up to Portland Place for me. Will you undertake that task?—and—and permit me to pay your omnibus,” added Mrs. Pembroke, tossing a sixpenny piece across the table towards Virginia. “JT will take home the dress with much pleasure for you, madam,” replied the young seamstress: “but as I shall walk both to the place of destina- tion and back homeward, I do not require any money for omnibus-fare ;”’—and, with her cheeks displaying the slight flush of a pride somewhat wounded by the self-sufficiency of Mrs. Pembroke, Virginia took up the sixpence and laid it down close by her side. “ Well, just as you please, Miss,” observed the lady, somewhat haughtily: then, instantaneously relapsing into the fashionable languour which she was assuming, she said, “You will greatly oblige me by taking the dress up to Madame Duplessy’s establishment in Castle Street, Portland Place.” “Certainly,” replied Virgiana: and she was pre- paring to depart with the box once more, when Mrs. Pembroke again made a motion for her to pause. “ Give me half a sheet of that writing-paper and the ink-stand, Miss,” said the lady, raising herself up to a sitting posture upon the sofa. “The Du- plessys are so particular—they always will have an invoice with everything, however trifling,” she con- tinued in a murmuring tone to herself: then, having written out a bill upon a slip of paper, she handed it to Virginia, observing, “ You must be sure to give this to Miss Dulcimer, Madame Du- plessy’s fore-woman.” The young seamstress promised to execute the commission punctually; and, taking her departure from Mrs. Pembroke’s abode, she sped along Ox- ford Street towards Portland Place. It was now close upon nine o'clock; and the great thoroughfare was thronged by persons hurry- ing to their places of employment or business. A thaw had commenced, and the pavement was almost ankle-deep in mud. Virginia was compelled to hold up her dress a little to save it, plain and humble though it were, from being covered with dirt; and, as she thus went half-trippingly along, the neatest ankles and the prettiest feet in all the world were revealed to the admiring eyes of those who happened to observe them. The coldness of the weather and the exercise that she was taking enhanced intu a perfect glow the colour which the chill water had brought to her cheeks when she was performing her ablutions in her own chamber:— and thus was it that Virginia Mordaunt had never perhaps appeared to greater advantage than on the present occasion, although wending her way along the muddy thoroughfare and carrying a large but very light box in her hand. She was just turning out of Oxford Street into Portland Place, when a handsome cabriolet, drawn by a splendid animal, and with a genteel little page standing behind it, came dashing up from Regent Street. Suddenly the gentleman who was ES TT sn —_— —— seated in this cabriolet caught sight of Virginia’s feet and ankles as they tripped glancingly over the slimy pavement: and, being instantaneously ravished by their delicate symmetry, he kept his | eyes fixed upon her until he was enabled to ob- tain a glimpse of her countenance. “She is lovely, by Jupiter!” ejaculated the gen- tleman—who, by the bye, was not more than about one-and-twenty years of age, and eminently hand- some ;—and, suddenly reining in his spirited steed, he leapt from the cabriolet, exclaiming to the agile page who was at the horse’s head in a moment, “ Follow at a short distance.” The page touched his hat and jumped into the - vehicle; while the young gentleman proceeded in the track of the beautiful seamstress who was now about thirty yards a-head. CHAPTER III. THE MILLINER’S ESTABLISHMENT. ToTALLY unsuspicious of the admiration which she had excited in the breast of the tall, handsome, and elerantly-dressed youth who was thus pursuing her, —and indeed, equally ignorant of the fact that she was being purposely followed at all,—Virginia con- tinued her way into Great Castle Street, where she soon found out the splendid millinery establishment of Madame Duplessy and Co. The windows con- sisted of immense panes of plate-glass in gilt frames; ~~ and within might be seen several caps and bonnets of the latest fashion and most exquisite appearance. The royal arms were mounted over the door; and in large letters was conspicuously announced the fact, for the behoof of any one whom it could pos- sibly gratify, that Madame Duplessy enjoyed the patronage of some Royal Highness of the feminine gender. It may be as well to mention that Madame Du- plessy was in reality an Englishwoman bearing the pot very euphonious name of Sauggins: but, being well aware in the first place that the ladies of the English Aristocracy would patronise nothing in the shape of native industry when French eompetition was in the way, and in the second place that the appellation of Snuggins was far from being a pass- port to patrician favour, the worthy milliner had coolly and quietly adopted a French name and dubbed herself a Frenchwoman. She had no hus- band: but she had a lover who lived with her, and thrashed her soundly into the bargain ; and this | gentleman, who was well known at all the gambling - houses in London as plain Bill Smith, passed as Monsieur Duplessy in Castle Street. The female herself was pretty, sharp-witted, intriguing, and possessed of much tact; and by aid of a suitable affectation of speech, she contrived to sustain her assumed character of a Frenchwoman with tolerable success; while her paramour, by means of a mous- tache, an imperial, and a curiously-shaped hat, enacted the part of a Frenchman to equal perfec- tion. For be it well understood that the notions entertained by the giddy, gay, and frivolous ladies of “high life” relative to the French people and the French character, are of the most distorted, ex- travagant, and fantastical description; and hence the facility with which those ignorant, prejudiced, GOMmMiic doo