The Works of George W. M. Reynolds — page 267: what you’re looking at

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

250 REYNOLDS’ WORKS idea flashed across her mind, “ extend thine all-protecting influence over my poor Henrietta! I shudder when I think of the temptations to which she is exposed, — temptations which her own exalted sense of virtue makes her recoil from, but to which, alas! a prolongation of so much misery may in a moment of despair drive her to succumb. Oh, how I tremble every time she goes forth to the fulfilment of her arduous duties. I think to myself, ‘Thou leavest this abode of poverty pure and chaste, my Henrietta, but is 1t not to be dreaded that the day may come when you will return with the blush of shame upon your cheeks and not daring to meet the gaze of thy mother.’” | Overpowered by the thought, the unhappy woman threw herself back upon the bolster, for pillow there was none, and covering her face with her emaciated hands, she sobbed aloud. Little Charley, being disturbed by the sounds of his mother’s grief, awoke and began to ery. Throwing his arms about her neck, he said, “‘ Don’t be unhappy, dear mamma,’ and in his own pretty childish way he did all he could to console her. Now, the very endearments of that child, so far from pouring balm into the heart of the unhappy woman, were like so many daggers plunging down into it, for with irresist- ible force rushed a thousand harrowing reflections to her mind. Was it not shocking that a child of such a sweet and affectionate disposition should be doomed to the sad fate of poverty and misery and perhaps want? For though the mother and daughter had hitherto managed, even by dire self-privation, to give the poor little fellow enough bread to eat, yet how long might their ability to do so last? Sup- pose that Henrietta lost her engagement at the opera, what would become of them? And when the season was over, if she should fail to obtain another engagement, what then were they to do? Oh, all this was more than the poor woman could endure to think of, and yet the terrible ques- tions were incessantly forcing themselves upon her. No wonder, then, that as she now took that dearly beloved child in her arms and strained him to her bosom, his very endearments and caresses should make her feel all the more acutely the anguish and agony of her position, and dread all the more poignantly for his own future destiny. The little fellow sobbed himself off to sleep again upon his Gomichbooks m