The Mysteries of the Court of London by Pauline Clarendon — page 218: what you’re looking at

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

SCENES AT MRS. BRACE’S ESTABLISHMENT 215 ,) tion could ever associate with the name of “ burglar” was simultaneously revealed to her eyes. ~ A scream rose to her lips; but it was stifled at the moment it was bursting forth, — stifled, too, not by any abrupt violence on the part of the robber, but by a sudden con- sternation which seized upon the lady. A spell appeared to have been thrown around her all in an instant; a tre- mendous stupefaction, a mental paralysis, had struck her dumb, motionless, powerless. At the same moment a faint exclamation of inefiable surprise escaped the lips of the burglar; and he also appeared to be riveted to the spot with a bewilderment that defies all attempt at description. For nearly a minute did Mrs. Brace and the burglar stand gazing fixedly upon each other, he still holding a candle in his hand, she leaning against the wall to which she had staggered when the man’s countenance first met her view; he half-doubting whether his eyes were not deceiving him, she every instant acquiring a deeper conviction that the features on which her looks were riveted were indeed familiar to her. But the ejaculation which dropped from the tongue of the burglar had caught the ear of his companion, who was inside the dining-room; and Mrs. Brace, therefore, speedily beheld another countenance appear in the doorway. ‘This second face was red, bloated, and sinister — indeed, almost as vile and repulsive as the first, but it was totally unknown to the milliner. The stupefaction which had seized upon her now rapidly yielded to a sense of the very painful position in which she was placed. She no longer even thought of summoning assistance; and, as to uttering a cry, her lips were sealed. Instead of hoping to have the burglars handed over to the grasp of justice, she felt. that she herself was completely in the power of one — consequently of both. Suddenly mustering up all her presence of mind, and calling all her courage to her aid, Mrs. Brace advanced a few paces, motioning to the men to enter the room. Per- celving that she was about to follow them, they fell back; and then, the instant they had disappeared from the door- way, a pang shot through the brain of the milliner, and, pressing her hand to her brow, she felt for a moment as if COME OO© SS (GO)