The Mysteries of the Court of London by Pauline Clarendon — page 67: what you’re looking at

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

64 THE COURT OF LONDON “ That’s the case with a many of you bagmen,”’ observed the landlord. ‘“ Unfortunately it is,’’ returned the commercial traveller. “ You see we are naturally a jovial set, and when we get together — ” “Pray go on as quick as possible, sir,’’ exclaimed the Gallows’ Widow, in a tone of impatience. ‘“T beg your pardon for digressing,”’ said Page. ‘‘ To come to the point, then, I am placed in a very awkward predicament. My accounts are most disagreeably inaccurate, and I stand a chance of having to give an explanation to the Lord Mayor, and afterward to the Recorder of London, unless I can get together a couple of hundred pounds by the day after to-morrow.”’ “And so you think that it would be as well to finger some of your employers’ hard cash, in order to pay them in their own coin?” observed the Beggarman. “I begin to twig, you see,” he added, with a knowing wink. “ You’re just right,’ responded Page ‘If I am to be transported, it may as well be for a burglary as for em- bezzlement — and that’s the plain English of it.” ‘Spoken like a man!” cried the Big Beggarman, exult- ingly. ‘“ The thing’s as clear as daylight,” he added, turning toward the Gallows’ Widow. ‘‘ This gentleman will assist in robbing his employers; and therefore we must suppose that he is well acquainted with the place where they keep their cash and the probable amount that is to be got by the venture.”’ ‘“T know that they never have less than seven or eight hundred pounds in the strong-box,’”’ said Page; ‘and I should not be fool enough to risk the matter unless I was convinced that success is certain.”’ ‘“ We may let him see the Magsman,’’ observed the Gal- lows’ Widow, in her abrupt, laconic way; for the suspicions which she had previously entertained were now almost completely dissipated. ‘‘ Follow me, sir,” she added; and rising from her seat, the woman opened the little door already mentioned. “Take the candle with you, my gal,’ said the Beggar- man. ‘I must remain at the bar; for there’s no lack of customers to-night.”’ The Gallows’ Widow took up the hght, and began to J ECORNIE DCO KS (EO) m