The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 32: what you’re looking at

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

VERNER HOUSE 13 The reader may have already gleaned a sufficiency of our hero’s character to be aware that it was marked by chivalrous magnanimity. His experiences of life were won- drously enlarged since we first beheld him seated with his amiable sister in the lodging at Mrs. Macauley’s house in London. He had seen enough of the villainies of the world to fill him with a generous longing to baffle and frustrate them whensoever the opportunity should present itself; and apart from his own naturally noble impulses, he had not failed to profit by the example of Mr. Redcliffe. It is not therefore astonishing if Christian lay awake a considerable time, pondering all he had seen in the close vicinage of Verner House, and that he should also rack his brain for the means of affording Laura that assistance which he felt convinced she required. But sleep came over him ere his mind was settled to any positive course; and when he awoke in the morning, he had to begin his meditations on that point all over again. He was equally uncertain how to act in respect to his own personal concerns, — whether he should leave the hotel and take a cheap lodging, so that he might remain in Ramsgate for a few days in the hope that events might occur to render him useful to Laura, or whether he should remain at the hotel until the morrow and see what that day might bring forth. His doubts in this respect were however set at rest when he descended from his chamber, for the land- lord requested him to step into his parlour, where he ad- dressed him in the following manner: “I returned home too late last night, Mr. Ashton, to be enabled to have a word with you. You are aware of the mention I felt it my duty to make of you in the telegraphic despatch. As you may easily suppose, my first inquiry on reaching London yesterday afternoon was at the banker’s where the villain Sycamore pretended to have a considerable sum of money, and I need hardly tell you that his representa- tions were entirely false. I thence proceeded to the hotel in Piccadilly, and there I learned that the statement you had made me in respect to the mode of your introduction to Sycamore, and the short period of your acquaintance, was strictly correct. In short, I know you to be an honourable young gentleman, and I am even sorry that you should have thought it necessary to liquidate your own account at my hotel, inasmuch as it was incurred under the impression that CoOnnicloookKkSs (CO)