The String of Pearls; or, The Barber of Fleet Street — page 174: what you’re looking at

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

el | 166 orem -—~ — THE STRI PEARLS, *"* Hh i ample food for agony. — If human nature could wrap itself up in the chill mantle of selfishness, and be perfectly insensible to all human feeling, it might escape, | but such cannot be done by those who, like the fine and noble-minded Johanna | Oakley, sympathise with all that is beautiful and great in creation. Already the | pangs of hope deferred were feeding upon the damask of her cheeks. The lily V || had usurped the rose, and although still exquisitely beautiful, it was the pale ra || beauty of a statue that she began to show to those who loved her. In the street Hae eople would turn to gaze after her with admiration blended with pity; They By. Pe peop _2 ; Ah already looked upon her as half an angel, for already it seemed as though she ee | had shaken off much of her earthly lurements, and was hastening to it | y i | “Rejoin the stars,” a} || Let us look at her as she lies weeping upon the breast of her friend Arabella Bevan | 1} Wilmot. ‘The tears of the two young girls are mingling together, but the one is | di | 4 i! playing the part of comforter, while the other mourns over much, | ee { “Now, Johanna,” sobbed Arabella, “you talk of doing something to save |} a it Mark Ingestrie, if he be living, or to bring to justice the man whom yeu sus- a ‘| pect to be his murderer. Let me ask you what you can hope to do, if you | give way to such an amount of distress as this ?” i} Nothing—nothing.” ay 1} ‘And are you really to do nothing? Have you not agreed, Johanna, to Py i i} make an attempt, in the character of a boy, to find out the secret of Ingestrie’s | 1} disappearance, and have not I provided for you all that you require to support ij the character? Courage, courage, courage.—QOh, I could tell you sueh stories 1} of fine ladies dressing as pages, and following gallant knights to the field of 1} battle, that you would feel as though you could go through anything.”’ | ‘* But the age of chivalry is gone.” 47 ** Yes, and why—because folks will not be chivalric. ‘To those who will, the 7{ age of chivalry comes back again in all its glory.” ‘Listen to me, Arabella: if I really thought that Mark was no more, and jj lost to me for ever, I could lie down and die, leaving to Heaven the punish- jj ment of those who have taken his life, but in the midst of all my grief—in the 4] moments of my deepest depression, the thought clings to me, that he lives yet. - 41 1 do not know how it is, but the thought of Mark Ingestrie dead, is but a vague j]| one, compared to the thought of Mark Ingestrie suffering.’’ 4} ‘Indeed ?”’ } y; ‘‘ Yes, and at times it seems as if a voice whispered to me, that he was yet || to be saved, if there existed a heart fair enough and loving enough in its strength j| to undertake the task. It is for that reason, and not from any romantic love of 4) adventure, or hope of visiting with punishment a bad man, that my imagination — clings to the idea of going in boy’s apparel to Fleet-street, to watch, and per- chance to enter that house to which he last went, and from which, according to all evidence, he never emerged.” ** And you are really bold enough ?” a | “I hope so—I think, if Iam not, God will help me,” ae 7} Asob that followed these words, sufficiently testified how much in need of | aa 4; God’s help poor Johanna was, but after a few minutes she suceeeded in re- ha ee | #} covering herself from her emotion, and she said more cheerfully— aj ‘* Come, Arabella, we talked of a rehearsal of my part; but I shall be more at ease when I go to act it in reality, and with danger. I shall be able to comport myself well, with only you fora companion, and such chance passengers as the | streets of the city may afford for my audience.” | | **J am glad,” said Arabella, “that you keep in this mind. Now come and hal ae i| dress yourself, and we will go out together. You will be taken for my brother, oe j| you know.” i jj ‘Inthecourse of a quarter of an hour, Johanna presented the appearanee of | | aap vv i} as good-looking a lad of about fourteen as the world ever saw, and if she eould Ha {| but have imparted a little moxe confidence and boyish bustle te her gait and ee a reer == meine ene cite ee Tas ter eS nn cst a ne ee OE a ee Bei. comicbooks.com