The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 112: what you’re looking at

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

THE EAVESDROPPER 89 the milliner almost immediately reappeared; and the rapid glance which the black page threw upon her showed him that she was labouring under a profound agitation, despite of all her efforts to conceal it. ‘““ My young friend,’’ said Mrs. Brace, in a tone penetrated with the nervousness of mingled terror and vexation, “a person has just stepped in upon some very important busi- ness, and I was thinking that if you could return in the morning — ”’ ‘“Madam,”’ interrupted the sable youth, ‘do not put yourself out of the way on my account. Transact your business, and I will cheerfully await your pleasure, even if it be an hour or two hours. But we must make our arrange- ments definitely this night, inasmuch as I shall be fully engaged to-morrow until the moment when my presence will be needed here.” “ Then if you have no objection to wait a little,”’ said Mrs. Brace, ‘‘ I will rejoin you in as short a time as possible. Perhaps you will take some refreshment — ”’ “Nothing, I thank you, madam,” said Rao. “ This book,” he added, as he took up a small volume of poems from a side table, ‘* will amuse me until you return.”’ Mrs. Brace accordingly withdrew once more; and the instant that she had quitted the room, Rao flung down the book and glided back to his post at the door. “Ah! I know which apartment she has entered,”’ he said to himself; ‘‘ I can tell by the direction that her footsteps took. Oh, is not every nook and corner of this accursed dwelling as familiar to me as if I had been brought up in it from my infancy? But I will be bold —I will be adventur- ous at all risks and at any hazards; for there is something like a presentiment which prompts me to play the eaves- dropper this night.’ And having thus hastily mused within himself, Rao opened the door so noiselessly that it emitted not even a sound which he could hear; and, stealthily traversing the passage, he approached the door of the apartment which he believed Mrs. Brace to have entered. But we must now leave the sable page outside that room — while we narrate what is passing within it. The Kinchin-Grand, Carrotty Poll, and the Gallows’ Widow were really the persons whom Mrs. Brace had intro- COnnNICLOOKS (C©)