The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 179: what you’re looking at

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

———————el OO EE 7” 168 THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. Mr. Bealby proceeded to wrap the stuff round tho case so that it covered the glass lid. A quantity of twine was wound round and round the cofiin, in order to keep the baize in the position in which it was folded; and thus far the work was com- lete. . ; P ‘ Now,” said Bealby, “the girl shall lay the breakfast-table; and I will go and settle with the landlady—or else I know very well she will not let the case go out of the house.” “ Bat you will be parting with fifteen pounds ?” whispered Ben Limber, with an air of discontent. *T am certain to sell the mummy for twenty pounds to-day,” responded Bealby; “ and therefore in any caso I must pay the old woman her rent. Besides, I have forty pounds in my pocket; and when I have settled the rent we shall still have twenty-five left. That fellow has got money,” added Bealby, drawing his friend Limber apart; “and I must get some more out of him when the moment of liberation comes.” There was now a knock at the room door; and the servant-girl of the house made her appear- ance. “That's right~lay the breakfast, Mary,” said Mr. Bealby; “and be quick about it—for I’ve got to go out on business almost directly. There's the mummy to be taken to old Mr. Fossilton’s house 7 “Beg your parding, sir,” said’ a shrill voice of command coming from the passage outside; “ but nothing leaves this house until my rent’s paid. You know the agreement of yesterday, sir,” con- tinued the landlady—for she was the speaker ; and she now pushed her way past the servant-girl into the room: “I am to receive the money waen Mr. Fossilton comes—leastways, fifteen pounds of it, for rent and things which is due ” “Softly, softly, my good woman!” said Mr. Bealby, assuming an air of dignity : “ you must not treat people as if they were all a pack of swindiers.” “ Swindlers, forscoth |" cried the landlady, who possessed a very vixenish countenance, and the short tip of whose nose, habitually red with drink- ing, wae now still more inflamed with passion. “I don’t like to use a harsh term, sir—but you your- self said it. I suppose now you are going to try and chouse me out of my rent, and to smuggle that there mummy out of the house ?>———Why, bless me, Mary! if it isn’t packed up all ready!”—and it was with a perfect scream of rage that the land- lady vociferated these words. “Don’t be foolish,”’ exclaimed Bealby: “ here is your money :"—at the same time he produced the bundle of bank-notes which he had received from the Barker. “ My friend Mr. Limber brought me lest night a remittance that I had been expect- ing: but as you, my good woman, had gone to bed I did not choose to disturb you.” “Oh! dear me, sir, it is not of the slightest con- sequence,” said the landlady, her entire manner ebanging from enraged insolence to oringing ser- vility. “I hope I have given no offence. I knew the rent was safe—I always said so to you, Mary —didn’t I P”’ “Yes, ma’am, to be sure,’ responded the servant-girl, readily corroborating her mistrese’s falsehood. “And Im sare, sir,” continued the landlady, “if I did press you fur the rent, it was only be- cause my landlord is so very hard upon me——” “Well, weil,” interrupted Bealby, who was im- patient to finish the scene; “there’s your money —you can give me the receipt presently. I say, Limber, by the bye,”—and he turned towards his friend—*“ would you mind stepping round into Covent Garden while Mary is gotting breakfast ready, and just see if you can hire a cart—a light one, with springs, you know, to convey the mummy to Mr. Fossilton’s house.” “ To be sure,” responded Limber: and off he set. The landlady gathered up the bank-notes which Bealby had thrown down upon the tabie ; and with three or four curtsies she issued from the room— promising to fetch the receipt as soon as possible. Mary continued her preparations for the break- fast; and thus far things had progressed comfort- ably enough. The rent was settled—there could be no possible impediment to the removal of the case—and Bealby had purposely directed Limber, in the presence of the landlady, to go and fetch a cart, so that he might have the appearance of acting in a perfectly straightforward manner, with- out being anxious to conceal anything. But ecarcely had the landlady got down stairs, when a double knock at the front door caused her to hasten and answer the summons. It was an old gentleman of past sixty, to whom she gave admittance. He was tall and thin— dressed in black—and stooping slightly. He wore green glasses of the description called shades, as if for weak eyes or bad sight. He walked with a cane: he took a great deal of snuff—and not in a very cleanly manner, as his shbirt-frill indicated. His face was very thin and very much wriokled: his features wore sharp; and he had a habit of puckering up his lips as he looked steadfastly at any object. This was Mr. Fossilton—a man of deep learning in everything connected with archay- ology, ard of profound ignorance in everything that related to all other matters. He had written elaborate ‘works upon subjects which scarcely inte- rested fifty people in-the whole country, but which he fancied had an interest for the entire world. He could make a speech of three hours’ duration on an old pipkin dug out—or represented to have been digged out of Herculaneum: but he could scarcely say three words on any topic which people generally choose to converse upon. His house was fall of curiosities,—or what he believed to be curio- sities: he had spent nearly bis whole fortune on things which he prized as being of inestimable value, but for the whole collection of which no plodding matter-of-fact person would have given him eighteenpence. Photography, the steam- engine, the railway, the electric telegraph, and all the brilliant discoveries or inventions of modern science, were with him as nothing in comperison with broken old china, bits of Roman cement, and other antique relics. He oonsiderod it of far greater importance to the world to find a clue to the reading of Egyptian hieroglyphics, than to contribute in the slightest degree to the progress of modern intelligence. Such was Mr. Fcssilton —the type of that class who prefer groping their way through the darkness of the tombs and sepul- chres in which antiquity lies buried, than to bask in the light of the knowledge of the nineteenth century. x_n GOnMIGOOOKS (CO