The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 194: what you’re looking at

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

ALFRED 167 the deeds which Alfred deposited upon the table. ‘“ Florimel will reward us munificently.”’ ‘To be sure,” observed Carrotty Poll, as she produced a bottle of wine upon the strength of the hoped-for recom- pense. ‘‘ Now, take a glass, Alfred, and then tell us how you managed it.”’ ““T suppose you received my note, old gal?” said the youth, whose meekness of manner and humility of tone had apparently been left behind him at the lawyer’s office, for the atmosphere of which they had been go successfully assumed. “Yes, we got the letter, Alf,’ replied Poll; ‘‘ and over- joyed we were. Only we had our misgivings, lest you should fail at the very last, or be detected — ”’ “‘ What a cursed spoony you must take me for,”’ exclaimed the youth, flinging one arm around Carrotty Poll’s neck, and the other around the Gallows’ Widow’s. ‘“ No, no; I played my cards better than that, I can tell you. Old Rigden is as cunning as a fox, and I fancied that he looked queer at me once or twice during the day. But never before had he entertained the least suspicion that I wasn’t all right, even if he did up to the very last moment.”’ ‘And how came you to discover the deeds to-day? ”’ de- manded Poll. “Oh, a young fellow came — a midshipman-looking chap — to see the guv’ner,” replied Alfred; ‘‘ and I happened to eo into the inner office with a message, just at the moment that the visitor said, ‘I see that you have got the Florimel documents all before you.’ So then I ascertained for the first time that the papers were there; and I do believe that the young middy noticed the satisfaction which I felt burning asit were upon my face. Having once made sure of the grand point which I had been endeavouring to arrive at from the very first moment I entered Rigden’s service, I knew that the rest was plain sailing. So I seized an opportunity to write you off a note, and, in a word, I have fulfilled my mission.’’ ‘Ah! see what it is to have nice-mannered and well- educated young gents like you enlisted in our service,” said Carrotty Poll. “ If you’d never run away from school and fallen in with the Kinchin-Grand, you wouldn’t have performed this glorious feat, you see, and you certainly COnNICLOOOKS (S©)