The String of Pearls; or, The Barber of Fleet Street — page 178: what you’re looking at

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

| “* Well, if he has gone he has gone, but I think it is the strangest thing I ever || heard of.” | | Sodo T,” said Todd. ; ¥, | || Without lingering, and so perhaps exciting Todd’s attention and suspicion, : / || they could hear no more, but Johanna had heard enough to give the spur to | 1) imagination, and when they had again crossed Fleet-street, and were making || || their way rapidly up Ludgate-hill, she whispered to Arabella— ! | © Another! another !” . i| “Another what, Johanna? You terrify me by that tone. Oh, be calm. Be | 1|‘calm, I pray you. Some one will observe your agitation.” = | * Another victim,”? continued Johanna. ‘ Another victim—another victim. ) | Did you not hear what the man said? Was it not suggestive of another murder? || Oh, Heaven preserve my reason, for each day, each hour, brings to me such || accumulating proof of horrors, that I fear I shall go mad.” . i} ‘Hush! hush! Johanna—Johanna!”’ ‘My poor; poor Mark—-——” 3 1} ** Remember that you are in the street, Johanna, and for my sake, I pray you to be calm. Those tears and that flushed cheek will betray youe Oh, why did || I ever nome you to come upon such an enterprise as this? It is my fault, all | my fault.” | The terror and the self-accusation of Arabella Wilmot did more to bring || Johanna to areasonable state than anything else, and she made an effort to || overcome her feelings, saying— . | ‘Forgive me—forgive me, my dear friend—I, only, am to blame. But at the | moment I was overcome by the thought that, in the heart of London, such a | || system of cold-blooded murder——”’ a. j | She a unable to proceed, and Arabella, holding her arm tightly within her | own, said=<= “Do not attempt to say another word until we get home. There, in my chamber, you can give free vent to your feelings, but let the danger, as well as || the impropriety of doing so in the open street, be present to your mind, Say }| no more now, I implore you; say no more,” | This was prudent advice, and Johanna had sufficient command of herself || || to take it, for she uttered not one other word until they were both almost breath- j| less with the haste they had made to Arabella’s chamber. Then, being no '|longer under the restraint of locality or circumstances, the tears of Johanna || burst forth, and she wept abundantly. Arabella’s romantic reading did some- || || times, as it would appear, stand her in good stead, and upon this occasion she || did not attempt to stem the torrent of grief that was making its way from the | |; eyes of her fair young friend. She told herself that with those tears a load of || oppressive grief would be washed from Johanna’s spirit, and the result fully | quseeed her prognostications. The tears sabsided into sobs, and the sobs to 4 Sig S. i| ‘Ab, my dear friend,” she said, “how much have you to put up with from || me. Whata world of trouble I am to vou.” i} “No,” said Arabella, “that you are not, Johanna; I am only troubled when | ie you overcome with too excessive grief, and then, I confess, my heart is i) heavy. ‘| ‘It shall not be so again. . Forgive me this once, dear Arabella.” 1; Johanna flung herself into her friend’s arms,and while they kissed each other, | and Arabella was about commencing a hopeful kind of speech, a servant girl, }| with open mouth and eyes, looked into the room, transfixed with amazement, i} “ Well, Miss Bella,” she cried at last, “you is fond of boys!” Arabella started, and so did Johanna. AL: “ Is that you, Susan?’’ cae are 47 “Yes, Miss Bella, itis me. Well I never! The idea! I shall never get the i| better 4 this here! Only to think of you, Miss Bella, having a boy at your 1| time of life.” comicbooks.com