The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 278: what you’re looking at

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

REVELATIONS OF THE MONSTER-MAN 247 my little ones, to see poor baby’s innocent face again, — ah, that would be a reward for all I had suffered! The door opened, and the landlady appeared on the threshold. She was frightened when she saw me, — she guessed that I had escaped, — and she was afraid of getting into trouble by even speaking to me. I beheld all the embarrassment of her manner, and my heart sank within me. I apprehended something dreadful; nor was I deceived in that harrowing presentiment. ‘“My family had been compelled to leave their lodging, — in plain terms, they had been ejected. I restrained my fury while I put some questions to the landlady. She was frightened at me and besought me to depart, hinting that the government officials might observe and arrest me. I saw that if I gave way to violence I should only invoke a renewal of the persecution whence I had escaped, and I accordingly maintained a forced composure. But this was all on a sudden interrupted by an outburst of bitter weeping, for my feelings overpowered me. Even the landlady, wretch as she was, seemed moved; and by way of consoling or per- haps of appeasing me, she volunteered the assurance that if any stranger called to inquire after me, she would not say that I had been there. As for my wife and family, the woman knew not where they had gone; and I departed from her presence in a state of mind which no culprit about to ascend the scaffold need have envied.”’ “Poor man!” said Tim Meagles, profoundly touched. ‘“‘ As for the landlady, she kept her promise to you, harshly though she might have behaved to your wife and children; for Miss Rose Foster has sent to make frequent inquiries at your old lodgings concerning you, and the servants who called there on her behalf never could glean any intelligence with regard to you.” “For this reason, then,” observed Melmoth, laconically, ‘“T will spare her. Otherwise I had intended to immolate her amongst the rest of my enemies. Oh, you may gaze upon me with horrified looks, Mr. Meagles; but you have tremen- dous things to hear ere we separate! However, — to resume the thread of my story, — I was telling you that I took my departure from the landlady’s abode in a condition of mind not to be envied by any living being, — no, not even by the most grovelling wretch that crawls upon the face of the earth, , GomiilGaooks (S©)