The Mysteries of London; or, Lights and Shadows of London Life — page 146: what you’re looking at

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

wee we eee “140 en ee THE MYSTERIES OF LONDON, the harsh treatment she had received from him, and yearn to ask for her forgiveness. In one of these regretful moods, now rendered more poignant by the impoverished state of his finances, he was stopping opposite the door of a gin- palace, hesitating as to whether he should enter and purchase a temporary forgetfulness of his condition, when a hand was laid upon his shoulder, and turning round, he saw a gentlemanly-dressed man was at his side, whose features he remembered to have noticed at the meeting turned frequently towards him. _ “Your name is Randall?” said the stranger, draw- ing him quietly out of the stream of passengers into the doorway of an adjoining house; “ you were for- merly the keeper of an inn at Bradley?” “ Before I answer your inquiry,” returned Jacob, with suspicion, “ let me know the object for which it is made,” “ My question hardly needs a reply,” pursued the speaker. “I recognised you at once; and your voice has made me certain I am right. You have done wisely in withdrawing from the company of the un- principled man that seeks to cheat the poor creatures he has this night been deluding with his treacherous promises. Had you stayed longer, I should have my- self given you a caution to retire; but you antici- pated me.” “ Wherefore, then, do you now address yourself to me?” | * Because I believe you to be still willing to adopt a better course of life than that you have been lately leading, if the opportunity were given you. Am I right, or not?” “Prove me by giving the chance,” answered Ran- dall, wondering in what way he had enlisted the interest of a complete stranger; “ and if you are as sincere in making the offer as I am in my wish to get an honest livelihood, you shall not find the matter long doubtful.” * You must first convince me that your reformation is complete,” continued the speaker; “and should | find it so, you shall have no one but yourself to blame, if you do not fully retrieve your character under more prosperous circumstances, What are those wishes that you desire most to see fulfilled ?” “ My first wish,” replied Randall, ‘is to see my daughter, who has fled from me; whither, I know not; but it was I who drove her from her home. Now,” he added, in a sorrowful voice, “‘ though she would find me an altered man, I fear my regrets are vain. My other wish is only that which I before expressed,—a fair field for my labours; I desire no more than the subsistence which they may procure.” “Perhaps the realisation of both will not be found so far distant as you imagine,” returned the stranger; “but we shall have time hereafter to speak of that. Take this card; it is the address of a wine ‘merchant in the city, who will give you immediate employment when you present it tohim. He will know from whom it comes, and place sufficient reliance on the: recom- mendation to need no other. In one month—or, perhaps, sooner—you will hear frou me again; in tle meantime be attentive to your duties, shun the bale- ful temptations that have been your curse, and you may live to find that all hope of bappiness is not yet extinct.” As he spoke, the stranger delivered to him a pen- cilled direction; and when Randall, after glancing at it by the gaslight, turned round to thank the giver, he was gone. The next day Jacob Randall tested the value of the Wivctuissaale 2a SEES. EL Se promise he had received so unexpectedly, and to his surprise, as well as gratification, he found the effect of that presentation had not been overrated. Installed in his new employment, the moment he appeared, it was eyident to him that his unknown patron had long before watched his movements, and taken an interest in his welfare, and as he entered with willing on the occupation provided for him, he determined to prove that he was not unworthy the kindness that had been shown, nor undeserving the future favours that were held out to him as his prospective reward. CHAPTER XXX, REVENGE AND RETRIBUTION. Earty on the morning succeeding the robbery at the villa, the Italian called upon Jarvis, and mindful of the diabolical intention he had promised to carry out against the cause of the agent’s disgrace and ex- pulsion, he was received by him with welcome eager- ness. The keen eyes of Jarvis sparkled with exult- ing satisfaction as he hurriedly beckoned his visitor into a more private room than that to which he was first introduced, and no sooner had the door been closed than he drew his chair close up to that of the Italian, and anxiously inquired whether he was ready to execute the design that had been agreed upon between them at their first interview. * Here is that which would destroy twenty lives,” muttered Bazzini, as he drew out of his vest small phial filled with a fluid almost colourless, “ and a few drops of this would speedily give you the power ot setting your enemy at defiance, It has as little taste as colour, and he who has once received its deadly poison into the system will find his blood gradually dry, up, whilst a burning fire rages through his veins, and makes even death itself a welcome refuge from the torture of its pangs,” “Excellent invention!” cried Jarvis, looking with ferocious joy on the instrument of his vengeance; “I long to bear of his writhing under its scorching in- fluence. But tell me,” he continued, “have you se- cured those details of my former life that I had heard the earl received from him?” “They are here,” rejoined Bazzini, handing over to him the papers he had purloined from the earl’s library; “and trouble enough I had to get them, The door which you told me led from the back of the garden into the mansion was secured, and I had to clamber over the balcony. However, I managed to bring away the right article at last, and now I hope you are satisfied,” “Yes, it can only have been from Mordaunt that he could have learned all this,” said Jarvis, in a kind of half-soliloquy,as he dwelt upon the document with which he had been furnished; “ every line that re- veals the history of my connection with the bank proves that he could have obtained it through no other channel, It is like his handwriting too,” he mut- tered, as his eye glanced closer to the page, “ but that must be but another trick of my distempered fancy.” . “And who is this Mordaunt, that you seem to have had such a horror of meeting his counterpart?” asked Bazzini, bending forward as he put the ques- tion; “from what I have there gathered,” he ob- served, referring to the papers, “ you appear to have been playing some curious pranks in your time,” “Ha! you have read these, then?” interrupted Jarvis, looking up to his companion with a scowling boo Owea