Spring-Heel'd Jack, The Terror of London — page 305: what you’re looking at

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

SPRING-HEEL’D JACK: THE TERROR OF LONDON. through the town, to pass away the time till the chaise was ready to start. The town consisted of about six hundred houses, about seventy of which were shops, many of them fitted up in the London style, and adopting all the London schemes to get patron- age. ; Jack strolled about, observing all that was to be observed ; and feeling somewhat tired, he leaned against a post, and amused himself by reading the notices in a grocer’s window. While thus engaged, a slatternly-looking young woman, with a basket on her arm, stood between him and the window, where she pro- ceeded, by the aid of the lights which streamed therefrom, to count over a few coins she held in her hand. Jack was about to turn away, lest he should excite in the woman’s breast a suspicion that he was watching her, when she muttered to herself— “Yes, I can get a little less of each, and save sixpence for myself. I don’t see why I shouldn't. He won’t know whether I get the right quantity or not, and if he won’t let me have money for a little drop when I want it, Pll have it some way, T will.” And thus muttering, the woman walked into the shop. | Jack watched her through the glass, and shrugged his shoulders contemptuously, as he read in the besotted features of the young wo- man her true character, that of a drunkard—a woman degraded to a beast, who would sell her soul for drink. The words, too, she had uttered he was not slow to comprehend the true meaning of. They denoted that her husband, cognisant of hey degrading passion, doled out the money for absolute necessaries as they were required, hop- ing by that means to save her from the worst of all vices. “You cannot outwit a woman,’ muttered Jack, ‘be her station whatitmay. “Tis evident her husband deems it best to keep her without money, so that she cannot obtain her favourite beverage ; but get it she will, even if she starve herself and children to obtain it. A man can have little pity for such a being as that. Egad! when a2 woman is inclined to be bad, she is bad. indeed! There is some hope of redemption in the male sex, but in the female none, none, I fear,’’ and Jack shook his head sadly. ‘‘She will save enough out of her purchases to get a drop, which I should like to prevent her obtaining; but I don’t see how to do her that kind action, unless it is by giving her a fright, and perhaps making her forget her insatiate lenging foratime. It might have that effect certainly, so I can but try it.” , Jack slipped on his mask, and, leaning his chest on the top of the post opposite the window, waited for the woman to come forth from the shop. Tn a few minutes, out she came, clinking a few pence in her hand, and with a look of satis- faction on her bloated face. “ Just enough for a glass,’ muttered the wo- man, as she passed before the window. ‘“ He's to be done, though he does keep the money. 307 I'll have a glass, in spite of him, whenever I want it.”’ ‘“‘ And send your soul to the devil,” said Jack, turning his face towards her, and suffering the lichts to fall upon his mask. The woman uttered a loud shriek, and, suffer- ing the pence to fall from her hand to the pave- ment, staggered backwards in terrified amaze- ment. “And plunge your soul to perdition,”’ said Jack, “by indulging your insatiate thirst for drink ! ”’ He made a motion, as if to advance towards her, and the terrified woman sprank back to- wards the shop-door, evidently with the inten- tion of rushing inside; but, having her gaze turned towards Jack, she stumbled against a chest of eggs, and, losing her balance, fell back- wards among them, smashing them beneath her weight. Her cry was echoed by the shopkeeper, who hurried to the door; and Jack, hastily tearing off his mask, turned and strolled away towards the hostelry, where, a few minutes after, he stood listening to the most outrageous accounts of the affair, and just before midnight took his seat in the chaise that was to carry him to London. 3 CHAPTER CV. JACK AND THE JACKSONS AGAIN, ““ WELL, here [am again, in London!” said Jack, flinging one leo over the other, and toying with his cigar-case, on the evening following the morn- ing op which the post chaise drew up safely at the hotel door. “The little jaunt in the country has done me good, I believe, for I feel as fresh as a lark, and particularly larkish, too. The fresh air has re- vived my spirits, and I feel half inclined to bid farewell to London for some time, and lead a quiet and respectalle life among the green fields, - till some of my pranks in the metropolis are for- sotten, and less anxiety is exhibited to place me between the cold grey walls of a prison cell. I[ don’t like the look of those large bills, which meet my gaze at the corners of the streets, offer- ing a reward for my capture, they show that my little games are becoming intolerable in this vast emporium, and that well-intentioned people are no longer willing to be haunted by the fears of meeting one in the dead of the night. I know, as well as anyone, that this conduct ill becomes a gentleman ; but I did not make myself, and it is a part of my nature to frighten people half out of their wits. It’s growing too hot for me here. My very name has become a terror in London ; and so, fora time, | must bid it farewell, if I would not stand unmasked in a court-of jus- tice.” Jack lit a cigar, and sank into a deep reverie for some time ; then, starting, he brought his open hand down upon the table, and muttered, half aloud— “ Yes, I must put an end to these midnight pranks for a time, as soon as I haye discovered the poor girl whom I promised to protect, and SSS SSS aaa SSS , | | have seen the true Richard Clavering in posses-. | “=comicbhoo me