The Works of George W. M. Reynolds — page 341: what you’re looking at

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

o24 REYNOLDS’ WORKS metropolis; and it was at Hatchett’s Hotel in Piccadilly where, according to the instructions given, I took up my quarters. On the following morning, just as I had concluded my breakfast, I received a letter which had been left for me, and which came from a clerk in the lord steward’s office at Buckingham Palace. This letter informed me that the situation of page of the back stairs in the royal household was at my service. I was delighted. There seemed to be something grand in being one of the queen’s pages; and methought it would furnish the stepping-stone to a career in which I should be enabled by zeal and good conduct to push my way to higher posts, perhaps to eminence. With a beating heart and exultant spirits did I repair to the palace, but scarcely had I entered upon the duties of my situation, when I found that they were entirely of a menial character. I had hoped to become a gentleman page, but I found my- self cruelly disappointed. Yet, what could [do? My means of existence depended upon an absolute resignation to my lot, for if I threw up my post, to whom could I apply for em- ployment? I therefore made up my mind to fulfil my destiny with as much cheerfulness as possible; but as I lay awake at nights I could not help asking myself many questions, and suffering my imagination to wander in a bewildering maze of conjectures. Why had I been brought up genteelly, if only intended for a menial office? Wherefore had I been educated with young gentlemen at a boarding-school and taught to believe myself a gentleman also, if no brighter lot than that of a lackey were in reserve for me? How was it that having in my earliest youth been fondled and caressed by an elegant lady, the influence of her love, even though following me unperceived, had not saved me from such a degradation as this? These and a thousand other questions did I ask myself, but no solution could I possibly find for them. , ‘‘ Various circumstances, however, gradually transpired to make me acquainted with new and still more bewildering facts associated with my earlier years. On the very first occasion, after my installation at Buckingham Palace, that I had an opportunity of walking out to view the metropolis, I chanced to pass down St. James’s Street, and the moment I caught a glimpse of the old red brick building at the bottom, I recognized it. Yes, though nine years had elapsed CONNIE NO KS (E(0) m