The String of Pearls; or, The Barber of Fleet Street — page 183: what you’re looking at

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

is to on) . CL NET A A TOC NCE Sasa Ceres bttns initia rab tese ingbendniamp cnt tno yA Nee h :. 9 THE STRING OF PHARLS. “(i es" 178 bed-room door with more than his usual caution. The wish to sleep came not to him, and sitting down upon his bed-side he rested his chin upon his hand and said to himself in a low anxious shrinking kind of whisper— << What does Fogg mean to do ?” Nor was the recent interview without its after effects upon the mad-house keeper himself. When-the door closed upon Watson he shook his clenched hand in the direction he had taken, and muttered curses, “ Not loud, but deep.’’ * ‘The time will come,” he said, ** Master Watson, and that quickly too, when I will let you see that I am still the master spirit. You shall be satisfied for the present, but your death-warrant is preparing. You willnot live long to triumph over me by threats of what your low cunning can accomplish.” He rose and drank more raw brandy, after which, still muttering maledictions upon Watson, he returned to his bed-room, where, if he did not sleep, and if during the still hours of the night his brain was not too much vexed, he hoped to be able to concoct some scheme which should present him with a prospect of exemplary vengeance upon Watson. CHAPTER XXXV. MRS, LOVETT’S NEW LOVER. Mrs. Loverr was a woman of luxurious habits. Perhaps the constant savoury hot pie atmosphere in which she dwelt contributed a something to the development of her tastes, but certainly that lady, in dress, jewellery, and men, had her fancies. Did the reader think that she saw anything attractive in the satyr-like visage of Todd, with its eccentricities of vision? Did the reader think that the lawyers’ clerks frequenting her shop suited her taste, varying, as all the world knows that class of bipeds does, between the fat and flabby, and the white and candle looking, if we may be allowed the expression ? Ah, no,—Mrs. Lovett’s dreams of man had a loftier range, but we must not anticipate. Facts will speak trumpet-tongued for themselves. It is the hour when lawyers’ clerks From many a gloomy chamber stalk ; It is the hour when lovers’ vows Are heard in every Temple walk. Mrs. Lovett was behind her counter all alone, but the loneliness continued but for a very brief period, for from Carey-street, with a nervousness of gait highly suggestive of afear of bailiffs—bailiffs were there in all their glory— comes a—a what shall we say? ‘Truly there are some varieties of the genus homo that defy minute classification, but perhaps this individual who hastened down Bell Yard was the neerest in approximation to what used to be called “a swaggering companion,” that can be found, He wasa gent upon town that is to say, according to his own phraseology, he lived upon his wits ; and if the { reader will substitute dishonesty for wits, he will have a much clearer notion of what the swaggering companion of modern days lived upon. He was tall, burly, forty years of age, and his bloated countenance and sleepy eyes betrayed the effects of a long course of intemperance. He wore mock jewellery of an out- rageous size; his attire was flashy and gaudy—his linen...... the less we say about that the better—enormous black whiskers (false) shaded his cheeks, and mangey-looking moustache (real) covered his upper lip—add to all this, such a stock of ignorance and impudence as may be supposed to thoroughly saturate one individual, and the reader has the swaggering companion before him, Ata } rapid pace he neared Mrs, Lovett’s, muttering to himself as he went— : Hreeianres oo ra SERED OEE LEI IOS LAS YES STR: comicbooks.com