The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 42: what you’re looking at

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

MORE PEARLS FROM THE STRING 23 forth from the midst of all the hair that covered his face. ‘““T have made this fellow write him a most peremptory letter, something in this style: ‘My lord, if your lordship ~ does not pay the nineteen thousand five hundred pounds for which I hold your lordship’s I O U’s by eight o’clock to-night, when the bank at my establishment opens, I shall be under the necessity of posting your name up in the room, and shall have you put into the Satirist and the Age next Sunday.’ ” ‘‘ And has this letter really gone? ’’ demanded Leveson, almost in ecstasies of delight. “ By Jupiter! I saw it sent off myself at about two o’clock to Carlton House, and when I went at three to call on Sack- ville, as usual, I pretended to be fearfully indignant on reading the said letter, which he thrust into my hand the moment I entered his room. Lord, how I did swear against that gambling-house keeper!, I called him all the ‘d d scoundrels ’ I could think of; and if oaths were things, and only as heavy as feathers, I am sure I swore enough of them to break a horse’s back if they were all collected together and laid upon it. Of course Sackville appealed to me for my advice and assistance. He always does, I have made myself so necessary to him. Well, I assured him that the money must be paid, for that the gaming-house keeper was a nasty fellow and would do his worst. Then how was the money to be got? That was the next question. Could I raise it on a loan? No; all the money-lenders I am ac- quainted with had got plenty of his bills already. He walked up and down the room in great agitation, and at length exclaimed, stopping short, ‘ Come, Tash, I know you must have some sort of advice to give me, if you will.’ Then I looked very grave, observing that the only thing I could recommend was for him to ask his wife, as she seemed. to possess an inexhaustible treasure somewhere or another. * No, impossible! ’ he cried, ‘ I dare not ask her for any more. Would you believe it,’ he added, ‘ that the whole amount I have had from her during the last six or seven months has run up to no less than fifty thousand pounds?’ I expressed my joy that he had a wife who was able to act as his banker to such a glorious extent, but I think he blushed a little and looked rather confused, as if he were not altogether pleased with the allusion. However, immediately recovering himself, EOMINGIOOKS (CO)