The String of Pearls; or, The Barber of Fleet Street — page 334: what you’re looking at

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

-“ a ee ee Saas oS Se Se ee Bia Sac cee | to waste upon the sorrows of other people ;—seme buttoned up their pockets. as ee — le ees git. “That will do, sir. I'll polish you off very shortly, indeed, sir. Are you going, Charley ?” : Johanna darted from the shop, and the moment she got clear of it, she by natural impulse drew the little slip of paper from her pocket, and read upon it— *‘ Miss O. do not if you can help it. leave any one alone in Todd’s shop, as circumstances may prevent us from always following his customers in; but if you should be forced to leave while any one is there, knock at No. 133 Fleet Street. This is from your friend R. B.” “133 ?” said Johanna, as she glanced around her, “133? Ah, it is close at hand. Here—here.”’ | The number was only a short distance from Todd's, and Johanna was making _ her way to it, when some one stopped her. | * From Todd s,’”’ said a voice. ‘‘Yes—yes. A man is there.” “ Alone?” rt. + 68, anit 3 | Before she could say another word the stranger drated from her, and made his way into Todd’s shop. Johanna paused, and shrinking into a doorway, Stood trembling like an aspen leaf. |. ‘*Qh, Heaven!” she ejaculated, ‘‘ into what a sea of troubles have I plunged, _ Murder and [ will become familiar, and I shall learn to breathe an atmosphere of blood. Oh, horror! horror! horror !’’ _| The crowd in that dense thoroughfare passed on, and no one took heed of AAR sn, ese, the seeming boy, as he wept and sobbed in that doorway. Some had no time though they feared that the tears that stood upon that pale fice were but the preludes to some pecuniary demand ;—others again passed on rapidly, for they were so comfortable and cosy that they really could not have their feelings’ : | Ding dong! ding dong! | What is that?) Ch, St. Dunstan’s chimes. How long has she been from the Johanna, averted it by enabling me to meet you here. Come home now—come lacerated by any tale of misery, not they. And so Johanna wept alone. the shop? Shall she return to it, or fly at once and seek for refuge from all the sorrows and from all the horrors that surround her, in the arms of her father? « Direct me, oh God!” she cried. | Some one suddenly clasps her arm. “Johanna! Jobanna!?’ It was Arabella. Wilmot. _ “Johanna—dear, dear Johanna, you are safe—quite safe. Come home now —oh, come~— oh, come—come.”’ | You here, Arabella?” _ “Yes, lam mad—mad!—at least, 1 was: going mad, Johanna; in my agony. to know what had become of you, and notwithstanding I have told Sir Richard Blunt, I had no faith in the love and the courage of any one but myself. I was coming to Todd’s.” ‘“*'To Todd’s ?” | | { | “Yes, dear,to Todds. I could not longer exist unless IT saw with my own eyes that you were safe.” “What a fatal step that might have been.”’ “It might. Perhaps it would; but God, in his goodness, has again, my dear, ‘at once.” “ Yes, I—I think ‘‘ Come—come;—you have done already much. Let, for the future, your - feelings be, that for Mark Ingestrie you have adventured what not one girl in @ million would adventure.” | At this mention of the name of Mark Ingestrie, a sharp cry of mental agony | burst from the lips of Johanna. : | | | comicbooks.com ae Oe ee ee —— ae : »