The Works of George W. M. Reynolds — page 59: what you’re looking at

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

42 REYNOLDS’ WORKS Christian ascended the steps and knocked boldly at the front door. Mrs. Chubb’s vixenish face disappeared from the window, and her lean, gawky form instantaneously appeared at the door. She was dressed in a faded and dirty cotton gown, with an old shawl thrown over her shoulders, and a rusty black crape cap, with dingy and crumpled red ribbons, upon her head. For a moment she surveyed our hero with the air of one who strives to bring forth a reminiscence from dimness and obscurity, and then suddenly recollecting him, she said, with a very sour look, “‘ Oh, you are the young gen- tleman who brought my husband home t’other night when he was the wuss for liquor? I suppose you’ve come to call upon him, but he’s engaged in school.” “No,” responded Christian; “‘ I took the liberty of knock- ing at your door in consequence of seeing that card in the window.” “Ah! that’s different,’’ said Mrs. Chubb, and her looks suddenly became different also. ‘‘ If you’re in want of decent and respectable lodgings, sir, you can have ’em here — least- ways if we suit each other. It’s on’y a small parlour and bedroom, which is fifteen shillings a week with attendance.” Christian had fifty pounds in his pocket, and he thought to himself that in a week, or a fortnight at the outside, he might obtain another situation, so that it would not be un- reasonable on his part to take Mrs. Chubb’s lodging. He walked in, and she showed him the parlour of which she had spoken, and which was indeed small enough, it being a third room on the ground floor, the one httle window of which looked into the yard, commanding a view of the water-butt and the dust-hole, a pail and a mop, together with two specimens of animated nature, one being in the shape of a cat that was sitting blinking on the wall, and the other in the form of a slatternly servant-girl who was peeling potatoes, and whose wages might, at the first guess, be put down at eighteenpence a week. The bedchamber was above this little parlour, and of corresponding size. The rooms were however cleanly enough, and Christian speedily intimated his desire to become their occupant. He took out his purse to pay the rent in advance, but Mrs. Chubb, who was a woman that expressed her thoughts without the slightest cir- cumlocution or disguise, declared ‘‘ that she never took nobody without a reference; for though a lodger might be CONNIE OO KS (E(0)