The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 364: what you’re looking at

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

CHAPTER XXVIII THE SMEDLEYS AGAIN We must once more request the reader to accompany us to the Smedleys’ habitation situated in one of those narrow streets which lie between the lower parts of the Waterloo and Westminster Roads. The house had pre- cisely the same appearance as when we first described it in an earlier chapter of this narrative, with the difference that there was a neatly written card in one of the windows, announcing lodgings to let. The brass plate on the front door, indicating the avocation of Mr. Smedley as a gold- beater, was well polished, as was its wont; the gilt arm, clutching the hammer in its fist as a further illustration of that individual’s calling, was equally resplendent. The two windows of the first floor had their dark moreen curtains and their white blinds as usual, and Mr. Smedley himself was as constant an attendant at the chapel next door as when we first introduced him to our reader. It was evening, and Mr. and Mrs. Smedley were seated together in their little parlour on the ground floor. There was a-bottle of spirits upon the table, and the somewhat inflamed countenance of Bab Smedley showed that she had been indulging in her predilection for strong waters. Not however that she had imbibed thereof so copiously on the present occasion as to affect her reason, but only sufficient to render her somewhat sharper and more querulous in her observations to her husband. They were discussing the circumstances of their position, and deliberating on the plans which they ought to adopt, but it was in low, whispering voices that they for the most part addressed each other, though every now and then the woman’s ejaculations be- came louder with the petulant impatience of her utterance, 300 EGOMIGIOOKS (CO)