The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 28: what you’re looking at

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

MOTHER FRANKLIN 11 opened, and his housekeeper, Dame Margery, came to announce that a very old woman, who refused to give her name, wished to speak to him. The Bow Street officer, who never refused to see anybody on business, at once desired that she should be admitted, and accordingly the visitant was shown into his presence. Dame Margery withdrew; and Larry Sampson instantane- ously recognized the old harridan, who, bent double with age, now advanced toward him, shaking her head and wagging her toothless jaws with a horrible kind of mysterious signifi- cancy. “Do you know who I be? ” she asked, in a voice something between a cackle and a squeak. ‘Yes, to be sure,’’ responded Larry. ‘‘ You are Mother Franklin, and you live over at Mrs. Young’s in Bermondsey. Now, then, what do you want with me? ”’ “Ah! I thought as how you would know who I was,’’ said the old woman, with a merry laugh, which nevertheless struck hideous upon the ear. ‘‘ You know everybody, Mr. Sampson, and everybody knows you.” Thus speaking, Mother Franklin took from her pocket a round snuff-box with an indecent picture upon the lid; and while regaling herself with a pinch, some of the snuff got into her throat, thereby exciting so painful a cough that it seemed as if the old hag was about to choke, while the scalding rheum poured down her wrinkled cheeks, leaving her eyes horribly red and bleared. She was wrapped in an old dingy red cloak, with the hood drawn over her head, and she walked with a stick. Her whole appearance was therefore not unlike that of one of the lowest and most wretched class of vagabond fortune-tellers; and now, as she stood shaking from head to foot with that prolonged hacking cough, Larry Sampson could scarcely avoid turning away from her in disgust. “ Well, what is 1t you want with me?” he inquired again, alter a sufficient pause to allow the harridan to recover from the effects of the snuff getting into her throat. ““T can do you a service, Mr. Sampson,” she said, now taking a seat, “‘ a wery great service, too, I can assure you.” ‘“ But it 1s doubtless to do yourself a service at the same time, Mother Franklin,’ observed Larry, ‘or else you CoOnnicloooks (C(O)