Joseph Wilmot, or, The Memoirs of a Man-Servant — page 86: what you’re looking at

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

THT TH bee eee uly) Hil} it} H H ihe SSS ~ a at UY ili rift fii Hillis a Mii LEAL LT LP Pp Proll ie tiie Mae r aa hE ' AL hee 9p ft} af i hive! ¥)) it > Prefers ar it, Hh (i j Ss = : — ~) then advancing through the hall, he slightly touched his hat, without taking it off; and hand- ing his lordship the card, said, “I am Mr. Ridley, my lord—of the firm of Sharpfist and Ridley.” The moment that the unfortunate nobleman’s eyes encountered the flashly dressed individual,— and before the latter had either tendered the card, or spoken a syllable to announce himself,—I noticed that his lordship staggered back a pace or two, as if stricken a sudden blow: while an expression of indescribable anguish passed rapidly over his fea- tures, which turned ghastly. Instantaneously re- covering himself however, he waved his hand quickly to stop the Sheriff’s-officer in the middle of his sentence ; and beckoning him to follow, led the way into the dining-room. Almost imme- diately afterwards, the bell of that apartment rang: one of the footmen hastened to answer the summons—and coming forth again in less than a minute, he said, “ Where’s Emily ?”—alluding to 10 > eS ~ ee EF Val | \ BLN) iw] « ] NTA € —— — or . - hay! \ @- Sint Va \ \ - one of her ladyship’s maids. I saw that he spoke in a hurried and excited manner; and as Emily at that instant made. her appearance from a door at the extremity of the hall, he hastened towards her. She appeared quite confounded by the announce- ment which he made, and which I was at no loss to guess: then she began to cry,—but quickly wiping her eyes, she sped up-stairs. “Well,” said the footman, coming across the hall and speaking to the porter, “this is a bad job —isn’t it? But it was foreseen. His lordship told me to desire Emily to go up and break as gently as she can, the distressing intelligence to her ladyship; so that it may not reach her all of a sudden.” The door of the dining-room now opened; and his lordship came forth, followed by Mr. Ridley, who had his hat on: so that I really do believe he had not taken it off during their interview, and that his lordship felt somehow or another too much Eloo cS (C)