The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 269: what you’re looking at

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

CHAPTER XIX STRUGGLES Two months had elapsed since the occurrences which we have been relating, and it now verged toward the close of December. During these two months poor Mary Wright had breathed her last, and was consigned to the grave. Almost daily did Christina visit the perishing creature, and for hours would she at times remain with her, assisting the nurse and the landlady of the house in their kind assiduities toward smoothing the progress of the victim to another world. Mr. Redcliffe called occasionally to inquire at the front door how the invalid was, but he never sought her presence; he did not choose to be thanked for all that he was doing for her. His purse, however, afforded ample proof of the generous sympathy which he experienced on her behalf, for she was not merely surrounded with comforts, but even with luxuries. Her benefactor’s conduct in thus avoiding her presence may appear eccentric, but on the other hand, it was full of kind- ness and consideration. Frequently would the most delicious and expensive fruits be delivered at the house, — fruits that must have cost gold in Covent Garden Market, and there was no difhculty in conjecturing from whom they came. When she breathed her last, Mr. Redcliffe gave instructions that her remains were to be decently interred, and he liberally rewarded the nurse, the landlady, and the medical attendant. He would have rewarded Christina likewise, only he knew not that she stood in need of succour, and he would have been afraid of insulting her by offering her any testimonial of his appreciation of her goodness toward the perished one. Well aware was he of this goodness; he had not merely learned in the first instance how Christina had behaved when she visited Mary Wright in Redcross Street, but he had also been 238 Gomichbooks (E (0)