The Widowed Bride — page 47: what you’re looking at

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

38 THE WIDOWED BRIDE. CHAPTER _V. IN TROUBLE. London, with its vast coronet of smoke and fog hanging over tower, and turret, and dreary wilderness of brick and mortar—London, with its scorching pavements, and vague hum of restless life and motion, and its far-reaching net-work of lanes, and alleys, and swarming streets. ‘l’o the tourists who dashes through its more attractive suburbs in a cab drawn by a high-stepping horse, or enjoys it from the stand- point of wealth and aristocratic station, London may seem a pleasant place; but to foot-sore and wearied wretches lke Rena and Alice, who drag their aching bones over the cruel pavements, bewildered by the noise, frightened by the ~ strangeness, and uncertain what may become of them in the huge maelstrom of human life, it presents quite a different impression. ‘“‘Mother Meg, I am so tired!” said Alice, hanging heavily on Rena’s hand. ‘‘Can’t I sit down and rest a minute?” But Mother Meg paid no attention to the child’s entreaty. Since they had entered the suburbs of London her manner had altered to a degree that puzzled Alice sorely, while it alarmed her more observant sister. | | ‘“‘What made her drag us so suddenly into that dark court and keep us there so long?” whispered Alice; ‘‘and why does dodge in and out of the side streets? I’m afraid of her, ena.” “Hush!” Rena made answer, in the same subdued tones, — as she watched Mother Meg exchange stealthy signals with a sallow-faced woman who was leaning out of a second-story window, her chin supported on both hands. The gipsy raised her eyebrows slightly, the woman, apparently absorbed in watching the antics of a withered little monkey, belong- ing to an Italian with a barrel-organ under her window, nodded her head with a scarcely perceptible motion. | “Do you know that woman, Mother Meg? Who is she?” asked Hena. What woman?” gruffly asked Meg. -. €*The one you nodded to just now.” “comicbooks.co