The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 85: what you’re looking at

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

66 REYNOLDS’ WORKS this would be a very serious loss for him. Besides, I feared that he would charge me tlio negligence, and altogether I was much afflicted. ‘Suddenly I looked up on hearing a footstep approach; Claude Masson stood before me. I was seized with confusion. In a voice of gentle melancholy — as if pleading for permis- sion to address me — he inquired the cause of my tribulation. I scarcely know in what hurried or bewildered words I ex- plained the occurrence. ‘ The wind,’ he exclaimed, ‘ blows to this side of the road, and you, mademoiselle, seem to have been searching on the other.’ Then he hastened in the direc- tion which he had indicated, and suddenly returning toward me, he said, ‘Behold the note. I will not avail myself of the little service I thus render you to intrude any longer on your presence.’ Thus speaking, he hastened away. I felt pained and grieved at the abruptness of his flight; I blamed myself for having spoken too severely to him when last we met; I began to fancy that my conduct was altogether tinged with ingratitude. I sighed profoundly, and again to confess the truth, dear Zoe, I wished that he had remained. However, I held in my hand the bank-note, and I proceeded to execute the commissions entrusted to me by my father. - But as I was issuing from one of the shops, I was accosted by the poor woman whom I had previously relieved, and she in- quired if I had lost anything? I asked her what she meant. She repeated the question; a strange idea struck me: it was accompanied by a sensation as if I were experiencing a sudden fright. In terms as confused as those in which I had ere now spoken to Claude Masson, I faltered out something about a bank-note for a thousand francs. That poor but honest woman at once presented me with the note I had lost, and which I immediately perceived to be slightly of a different colour from that which Monsieur Masson had placed in my hand. I cannot describe the feelings which seized upon me as I took that note, and it was not until I had observed that the poor woman began to regard me somewhat suspiciously that I regained my self-possession. Then I placed a liberal reward in her hand, and hurried away. I was struck by the generosity of Claude Masson’s conduct, — a generosity, too, that was blended with so much delicacy, for little, doubtless, had he anticipated that the real note which was lost would ever be restored to my hand. But, ob, to think that I now lay ECORNICLIOOKS (E(0)