The String of Pearls; or, The Barber of Fleet Street — page 71: what you’re looking at

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

coe ___THE STRING OF PEARLS. 63 she had not asked Colonel Jeffery for a personal description of Mr. Thornhill, for that would have settled all her doubts at once, and the idéa that she had it still in her power to do so, in consequence of the appointment he" had made with her for that day week, brought her some consolation. * ‘‘Tt must have been he,” she said; “his anxiety to Jeave the ship, and get here by the day he mentions, proves it; besides, how improbable it is, that at the burning of the ill-fated vessel, Ingestrie should place in the hands of another what he intended for me, when that other was quite as likely, and perhaps more so, to || meet with death as Mark himself.”’ ty _, Lhus she reasoned, forcing herself each moment into a stronger belief of the || sr | identity of Thornhill with Mark Ingestrie, and so certainly narrowing her anxieties || » alt, | to a consideration of the fate of one person instead of two. m0 the __ “J will meet Colonel Jeffery,” she said, “and ask him if this Mr. Thornhill Could had fair hair, and a soft and pleasing expression about the eyes, that could not fail th the |. to be remembered. I will ask him how he spoke, and how he looked; and get likely | him, if he can, to deseribe to me even the very tones of his voice; and then I owas | shall be sure, without the shadow of a doubt, that it is Mark. But then, oh! | then comes the anxious question, of what has been his fate ?” “ When poor Johanna began to consider the multitude of things that might have happened to her lover during his progress from Sweeney Todd’s, in Fleet-street, to her father’s house, she became quite lost in a perfect maze of conjecture, and then her thoughts always painfully reverted back to the barber’s shop where the dog had been stationed; and she trembled to reflect for a moment upon the fright- ful danger to which that string of pearls might have subjected him. , * Alas! alas!” she eriea, “I can well conceive that the man whom I saw . attempting to poison the dog would be capable of any enormity. I saw his face | but for a moment, and yet if was one never again to be forgotten. It was a face in which might be read cruelty and evil passions; besides, the man who would put an unofiending animal to a cruel death, shows an absence of feeling, and a base- ness of mind, which make him capable of any crime he thinks he can commit with impunity. What can I do—oh! what can I do to unravel this mystery ?” | No one could have been more tenderly and gently brought up thaa Johanna . Oakley, but yet, inhabitive of her heart, was a spirit and a determination which few indeed could have given her credit for, by merely looking on the gentle and affectionate countenance which she ordinarily presented. But it is no new pheno- menon in the history of the human heart to find that some of the most gentle and Joveliest of human creatures are capable of the highest efforts of perversion; and when Johanna Oakley tuld herself, which she did, she was determined to devote her existence to a discovery of the mystery that enveloped the fate of Mark Ingestrie, she likewise made up her mind that the most likely man for accomplish- ing that object should not be rejected by her on the score of danger, and she at once set to work considering what those means should be. This seemed an end- less task, but still she thought that if, by any means whatever, che could get admittance to the barber’s house, she might be able to come to some conclusion as to whether or not if was there where Thornhill, whom she believed to be Ingestrie, had been stayed in his progress, a ie | ** Aid me Heaven,” she cried, “in the adoption of some means of action on the occasion. Is there any one with whom I dare advise. Alas! I fear not, for the only person in whom I have put my whole heart is my father, and his affection for me would prompt him at once to interpose every possible obstacle to my proceeding, for fear danger should come of it. To be sure, there is Arabella Wilmot, my old school fellow and bosom friend, she would advise me to the best of her ability, but I much fear she is too romantic and full of odd, strange actions, || that she has taken ftom books, to be 2 good adviser; and yet what can I do? I must speak to some one, if it be buf in case any accident happening to me, my || jot, get news of it, and I know of no one else whom I can trust but rabella.” After some little more consideration, Johanna madé up her mind that on the ~ + ee - ee wee ee Se Te SE ee ' en W_BESEFE cee SSE PRSECER ESE SSeS SS eres kicks EeT = — eee ee — ———————— ————————— comicbooks.com