The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 366: what you’re looking at

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

CHAPTER XXVI TORTURES Tren days elapsed, during which the Burker remained in the companionship of the squinting gossoon, and they wan- dered from one town to another. They were tolerably successful in their appeals to public charity, and during this interval it was not again found necessary to have re- course to the knives in order to awaken sympathy. The Burker ate and drank of the best; a couple of hours each day were generally sufficient to procure the requisite coin for the purchase of this food, and the houses of public accommodation afforded the wanderers a _ resting-place for the night. The Burker began to learn a few of the commonest words in the native language of his companion, and he thought that his present kind of life was not so very disagreeable, after all. He soon perceived the motive by which the gossoon was influenced in making him his companion. It was tolerably evident that public sympathy was pretty well exhausted in respect to the tribe of mendicant dervishes, but the spectacle of a European in apparent distress gave an impulse to flagging charity. The Burker thus comprehended that it was more on his own account than for the gossoon’s sake that alms poured in upon them, but the dervish himself endeavoured by all kinds of manceuvrings and stratagems to prevent this impression from taking a hold on the English- man’s mind. The Burker was, however, too shrewd not to fathom the truth, and he accordingly began to think that it would be better for his own interests if he were to dissolve the partnership of mendicity with the gossoon. His resolution to this effect was taken, and he now only awaited an opportunity to carry it out. 337 CONNIE Oe SS) (S(O)