The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 270: what you’re looking at

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

STRUGGLES 239 informed by the landlady of the house at Islington, of Miss Ashton’s frequent visits there. But it so happened that whenever Mr. Redcliffe called, Christina never came up to the door at the same time; so that since that encounter in Redcross Street, Mr. Redcliffe and the twins had not once met. Christian was in the habit of seeing his sister as far as the house, it being at no very great distance from their own lodging at Camden Town, and then he would set off in search of a situation, returning at an hour previously appointed, to fetch his sister and conduct her home again. But during these two months Christian had found no situation and Christina no work. They had both used every endeavour to procure such employment as was respectively fitted for each, and they had failed. There seemed at this period of the orphans’ lives to be a kind of fatality which in- fluenced them with its evil spell. We need not enter into particulars in respect to the numerous applications made by each in countless quarters, nor the nature of the refusals — sometimes rebuffs — which they had to encounter. They had called upon Mrs. Macaulay, but she was unable to give them any recommendations to particular quarters, and, as the reader is aware, they were in all other respects friendless — those two poor orphans — in the great metropolis. Mrs Macaulay, having perceived several instances of Mr. Red- cliffe’s charitable disposition, had thought of mentioning to him the gloomy prospects of the twins, but somehow or another she always forgot to do so when she had an oppor- tunity. These opportunities were indeed rare enough, for Mr. Redcliffe, soon discovering that she was of a gossiping character, invariably cut her short whenever she seemed to threaten him with a long discourse. Never in the presence of Mary Wright, while she yet re- mained alive, did Christina drop the slightest allusion to her own position, though it had daily been becoming worse and. worse, and many and many an hour did she give to the dying young woman, when, but for her, she would have been roaming about from place to place, wherever there appeared a chance of procuring needlework. Before continuing the narrative, we must remark, in ad- dition to the above explanations, that during the time which had elapsed since the orphans quitted Mrs. Macaulay’s house, they had seen nothing more of Lord Octavian Meredith. (EMAC NOVO KS (E(o)