Alfred de Rosann — page 140: what you’re looking at

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

xf ALFRED DE ROSANN. 131 De Rosann threw the letter upon the table near the bed, and hastily performed his toilet, in order to lose no time ere he started for Southampton, whence it was his intention to embark on board a steam-vessel bound to Havre. He threw himself into a hackney- coach, and desired the driver to take him to an ad- dress, that he» named, in the city. The obsequious Jarvey whipped his two miserable animals, which he was pleased to dignify by the title of Aorvses, and the vehicle flew along the Strand at a quicker rate than ordinarily distinguishes—carriages of the kind. And here we may observe, en passané, that if the English hackney-coachmen and omnibus-cads were only one quarter as civil as the individuals who fill similar distinguished situations in France, the magistrates of Bow-street, Hatton-garden, &c., would leave the of- ficial benches half an hour earlier every day, to their especial contentment, and to the annoyance of the proprietors of Bedl’s Life in London and the Weekly Despatch, the columns of which journals are invari- ably filled with police-reports wheréin the myrmidons _of Shillibeer generally figure to advantage. On account of certain formalities to be filled up, and certain unavoidable delays, upon which it is not our intention to dwell, De Rosann could not receive the money until four o’clock in the afternoon, when he was obliged to proceed to the city a second time to fetch it and sign a receipt. But in the interval between his two visits, we must notice that a gen- tleman honoured our hero with a call, and, not finding him at home, toak the trouble to wait at least a quarter of an hour, expecting his return. De Rosann questioned the waiter as to the age, dress, and princi- pal charactefistics cf the person who had exhibited such uncommon politeness, and found, by the answers he received to his inquiries, that the individual in question could have been no other than Belle-Rose. The waiter, moreover, added, that the visiter appeared astonished when he was informed of De Rosann’s Gomicbook (F@)