The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 32: what you’re looking at

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

THE HEIR APPARENT AND HIS AGENT 18 delay; and in the course of a quarter of an hour his Royal Highness and Mr. Page were rolling along in the vehicle toward the Edgeware Road. It was about half-past nine when the carriage stopped within a short distance of the ex-bagman’s residence in Paradise Villas; and Mr. Page entered the house first, to ascertain whether the contemplated treachery had been put into execution. The prince remained in the vehicle; but he was not kept waiting many minutes, for his obsequious agent soon returned with the welcome intelligence that Miss Pauline Clarendon was in a condition that left her entirely at his mercy. The prince, scarcely able to restrain his joy at the idea of experiencing the speedy consummation of all his lustful hopes in that quarter, now alighted from the carriage and followed Mr. Page into the house. The vehicle, according to orders previously issued, then drove away. In the meantime a scene which we must here pause to relate was occurring in the immediate vicinity of Mr. Page’s abode. Seated at a table in the tap-room of a low public-house the Gallows’ Widow, the Kinchin-Grand, and Carrotty Poll were engaged in an earnest conversation, which they carried on in whispers. They were alone together in that room; and the landlord of the house was none other than their old ac- complice Briggs, who by means of an immense wig and a pair of green spectacles was enabled to defy the penetration of the keenest thief-taker in the metropolis. The two women and the Kinchin-Grand therefore felt perfectly at home at the sign of the Black Boy; but the habit of caution, combined with the fear of being overheard by any chance customer who might enter the house, prompted them to conduct their deliberations in a low voice and a guarded manner. The Kinchin-Grand was as shabby and ill-looking as ever; and the naturally vixenish temper of Carrotty Poll appeared to have derived a keener edge from the misfortunes which had overtaken her sire, the Big Beggarman, who was then in gaol awaiting his trial for piracy, murder, and Heaven only knows how many other crimes. As for the Gallows’ Widow, the reader may rest assured that she was not rendered more amiable or forbearing toward her enemies by the position of COnnICLOOKS (S©)