The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 296: what you’re looking at

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

WOODBRIDGE 265 ‘‘ Wherefore the absence of any name to indicate to the passer-by who reposes beneath? Was it that the dead who lies here was, when living, so stained with crime that sur- viving relatives, though bestowing the right of solemn obsequies, yet dared not perpetuate a name that guilt had rendered infamous? And yet it can scarcely be so, for if it were, the remains of this unnamed one would scarcely have found sepulture in consecrated ground.” At that instant Mr. Redcliffe became aware of a human form approaching along the walk intersecting the church- yard; he saw that it was the form of a woman, and a second glance made him start and ejaculate, ‘‘ Ah, one of the objects of my search! ”’ “Mr. Redcliffe,’ said Crazy Jane, —for she indeed it was, — and she presented herself with no greeting of courtesy, nor with any apology for her abrupt and secret withdrawal from the asylum which he had provided for her after the trial of Lettice Rodney, — “* Mr. Redcliffe, there lies the one concerning whom you have twice or thrice spoken to me.”’ Crazy Jane pointed with her lank arm to the grave, and Redcliffe, hastily turning aside, concealed from the woman’s view the unutterable emotions which had suddenly found silent but eloquent expression in his countenance. ‘Then she is dead!” he at length lowly murmured to himself, but the woman heard not what he said. ‘‘ How know you,” he inquired, after another pause of nearly a minute, — “ how know you that she lies here? ”’ ‘You yourself shall know it from the same source whence I learned it,’ answered Jane. ‘ Oh, Mr. Redcliffe, I am not mad at this moment. No, no, never, never for long years have I understood myself so well as at this instant. No, not even when telling all I knew to the magistrates and yourself in respect to the horrible murder at Liverpool. I heard things this morning,’ she continued, slowly and gravely, and in a perfectly collected manner, ‘‘ which have made me reflect in a way that I have not reflected before for a long, long time. A change has taken place within me. I feel it here,’ she said, placing her hand upon her brow, “ and I feel it here, too,’’ she added, placing her hand upon her heart. “I am rejoiced to hear you thus speak, Jane,” replied Redcliffe; but though he spoke of joy, there was neverthe- EGOMINGIOOKS (CO)