The String of Pearls; or, The Barber of Fleet Street — page 266: what you’re looking at

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

258 ee STRING OF PEARLS. ' \ | | | i | i ! his countenance, a now glanced. upon this vision, for vec Z ished ae a as moment ; and yet he saw that Mrs. Lovett it was to all intents and purposes, and that he rite discovered in his exploring expedition in her parlour appeared to be one of those facts it would have required no small share of moral hardihoad to dispute. Seeing, however, should not always be believing, despite the venerable saying which asserts as much. _ ‘*1 mustapprehend her, now, ” thought Sir Richard Blunt ; ‘‘ I have no resource but to apprehend her at once.” With this object he was about to dart forward, when something strange about the appearance of Mrs. Lovett arrested his attention, and stayed his progress. He paused and remained leaning partly upon the back of a chair, while she slowly advanced into the room, and then as she came nearer to him he became convinced of what he had begusi to suspect, namely—that she was walking in || her sleep. There is something awful in this wandering of the mortal frame when its senses seem to be locked up in death. It looks like a resurrection from the grave—as though a corpse was again revisiting ‘he glimpses of the pale moon ;”’ Sse weet rine ene pean Ne a nh reenter a chee nth seen ineeete Saye vs teodgee and even Sir Richard Blunt, with all his constitutional and acquired indifference | to what would be expected to startle any one else could not help shrinking back a || little, and feeling an unusual sort of terror. This transient nervousness of his, || | though, soon passed away, and then he set himself to watch the actions of Mrs. || Lovett with all the keenness of intense interest and vividly awakened curiosity. || She did not disappoint him. Moving forward into the room with a slow and | stately action, so that the little flame of the rushlighf was by no means disturbed, she reached the middle of the parlour and thenshe paused. She assumed such | | | | | a natural attitude of listening, that Sir Richard Blunt voluntarily shrunk down oehind the chair, for itseemed to him at the moment that she must have heard him. Then, ina low and slightly indtstinct tone, she spoke— ‘Hush! hush! So still. The poison! Where is the poison ?—Will he || 7 takeit? Ah, that is the question, and yet how clear itis. But heis fiend-like in his suspicions. When will he come?” She moved on towards tke cupboard, in which the decanter of poisoned wine had been placed, and opening it, she felt in vain upon the shelf for it. It was | still upon the table, and if anything more than another could have been a con- vincing pro of of the mere mechanical actions of the somnambulist, this fact, that || she passed the wine where it was, and only recollected where it had been, would || have been amply sufficient. After finding that her search was ineffectual, she || turned from the cupboard, and stood for a few moments in silence. Thena ! horror shook her frame, and she said— / «They must all die. Bandage your eyes, and you will shut out the death shrieks. Yes, that will be something, to get rid of those frightful echoes. Bandage after bandage will, and shall do it.” S'r Richard stood silently watching ; but such was the horror of the tones in {| which she spoke, that even his heart felt cold, as though the blood flowed but sluggishly through its accustomed channels. h\ “ Who,” he thought to himself, “ for the world’s wealth, would have this || t woman’s memory of the past?”’ | She still held the light, and it appeared to him as though she were about to go into the shop, but she paused before she reached the half-glass door of com- munication between it and the parlour, and shook like one in an ague. ‘¢ Another !—another!” she said. ‘‘ How strange it is that I always know. The air seems full of floating particles of blood, and they all fall upon me! Off, off. Oh, horror! horror! Ichoke—I choke. Off, I say. How the hot blood steams up ina sickly vapour. There—there, now! oy does Todd let them || shriek in such a fashion ?”’ k She now shook so, that Sir Richard Blunt made sure she would either drop / the light she carried, or, at all events, shake it out, but neither of these con- Tn 24 ae aaa a ee ee ee Le ee a Ee ACSI I SRT TDS NE —_— comicbooks.com