The Mysteries of London; or, Lights and Shadows of London Life — page 15: what you’re looking at

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

| r your obscure labourers, who, when they had a ee ee LIGHTS AND SHADOWS OF LONDON LIFE, ” . SS A! “ Well, found; and their authenticity was acknow-| “But let us go halves, at least.” iged without the slightest hesitation. Those who| “ You forget my risk, Mr. Greene; you do, indeed. not paid any rent for years of course grumbled at | Come, another glass of sherry, there. And now here first about the probability of their being turned out by | is the little document in which I have had the agree- a new landlord; but when I hinted that the rent | ment drawn up. Write your name in that corner—a would be for some time merely neminal, they admitted | simple signature—a few strokes of the pen—and the my claims and surrendered up the keys,” thing is done.” And as these words were uttered, the “ Excellent!’”’ ejaculated his hearer, “And Mr. | speaker drew a paper, already prepared, from his Hillier, the house-agent and builder?” pocket-book, and adroitly placed it under the hand of Said he was quite convinced the right heir would | his companion opposite, with the pen and ink before out to be a real gentleman at last, and none | him. “A simple signature—a few strokes of the pen!” fortune found for them, wouldn’t know what to do| Truly the action is indeed one easily performed. Yet with it, I gave him the order you suggested for im- | from this source what worlds of misery have sprang! adiatel; the old houses and erecting a/ A few brief marks upon paper, a mere name scrawled some terrace instcad.” upon a blank spot, and the fiend that Frankenstein ! The space is sure to be required by the | created was not a more relentless persecutor. “A few wa pep and the ground will then be valuable. | strokes of the pen, and the thing is done.” It is so; , will rise two hundred per cent. at least.” and at the same instant homes are made desolate, “Jefferson, the solicitor, who occupied one of the | friends sundered, families beggared, and life itself and had received a tolerable portion of the| destroyed. The hydra-headed monster that preys 3 in trust, had some hesitation at first; but when | upon society is begotten from the outpourings of an showed him the attested copy of the will, and the | ink-drop. signature of——” As Mr. Fitzroy Greene took the paper and carefully “Jonathan Greene, who died in 1749; and the! perused its contents, he looked from time to time to- aealogy, so clearly made out, through the correla- | wards the inflexible bargain-maker, but could see no tive branches of the same family, until we come to | symptom of his relaxing from the condition for which Sarah Greene, deceased, intestate, in 1827,” hurriedly | he had stipulated. He gazed steadily for an instant interrupted the other, recapitulating with delight the | at the green spectacles; but they betrayed no unusual evidences of his own ingenuity. glare behind, and he failed to decipher any change of “ Yes, when I showed him all that, and convinced | expression in the mouth beneath. Slowly taking up him I was the only legitimate heir now living, he | the pen that had been provided, he dipped it cautiously promised to look narrowly into the affair; and if he | into the inkstand—hesitated—dipped it into the ink found my claim was correct, he added that he would | again—and then rapidly wrote, in a dashing, bold fy - render me every assistance to regain my rights.” ** Ay, let him look—scrutinise the affair as he may —pore over the musty rolls of parchment from noon till night, and spend a lifetime in the search—he will the old man has been too cunning to let a flaw ep into the business he has held so long im hand ;” and as this was said with unusual rapidity mence, the little man in black rubbg a manifestation of fiendish glee, and z E h of sunff from the box before ND EInEEnn ldc o the words he had uttered. 5 And now for the terms,” continueé | Greene, somewhat astonished at the exuberant action of his companion. _ “You remember, my dear sir—sixty thousand “I thought forty was our original agreement.” “Sixty, my dear Mr. Greene—not one farthing less, T assure you, Consider the property will be estimated altogether at eighty thousand pounds, at the least; I already lent you two hundred pounds to prose- claims, and make the necessary appearance and even when that is returned, you will have nearly twenty@housand at your own dis- | You drive a hard bargain, Mr. Parkins.” | » “Consider the risk I have run in this matter, and | the trouble I have had, besides the expenses I have ‘| inenrred, and the family I have to bring up in a re- _ | spectable sphere of society ; consider all this, my dear 2 a Mr. Parkins, “and then I am sure you F not charge me with being exorbitant in my 7 pw Weis 3 a jh — a te att lil ‘ “ p 4 “I must have a little time to dwell upon this pro- ; There is no like the t, my dear sir,” | resumed hia associate, thapememon style, his autograph, “ Fitzroy Greene.” At the moment the name was traced, the lower part of Mr. Parkin’s face was lit up by a grim smile, and he drank the wine he had before poured ont, to conceal the full extent of his gratification. “There! now I hope you are satisfied, Parkins,” said the new found heir, pushing the paper across the able; “and I think, for to-night, you have brought S business to a tolerably profitable conclusion.” Perfectly!” returned the other, folding up the ument, and placing it leisurely in his pocket-book, 1 ** You shall hear further from me to-morrow.’’ Mr. Parkins having observed their privacy was liable to be disturbed by the intrusion of strangers, now rose to depart, and in vain endeavoured to dis- suade Mr. Fitzroy Greene from the ceremony of ac- companying him a short distance down the staircase. Before they separated Mr, Parkins emphatically laid his hand upon the arm of the other, and in a voics too subdued to reach the ear of the attendant, who was waiting below to unbar the door, exclaimed : “ Remember, you will hear from me to-morrow.” “T shall be sure to be in the way,” accompanied by a reciprocal grasp as they mu wished each other good-night. “What an unpri scoundrel it is!” thought Greene, as he ascended the staircase to his chamber, “T never met with amore unconscionable rogue!” muttered the little man in black, as he crossed through the market on his way home by the Strand, The Earl of Winterton’s town house in Piccadilly was one of those stately structures which overlook the verdant undulations and leafy expanse of the Green Park, Never was the establishment of one of the aristo- | ee ERT EE EE EET TE TTT TEE EEE 7 ° A GOMIIGIOO <S) (E() m