Penny Blood Serial Fiction — page 176: what you’re looking at

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

~ LADY BESS’'S HISTORY 159 about the neighbourhood of my cottage residence. And now it may be asked wherefore I did not renew my search after that village to which I had been taken by Mrs. Burnaby, and for that splendid mansion in the park where I had seen the invalid lady? The explanation is easily given. When I first made those researches, I was untainted by the con- sciousness of crime, and if I could have discovered a clue to that lady, I might have presented myself to her with an unblushing countenance, whether she were my mother or whatsoever degree of relationship she stood in toward me. But now it was very different, — and I shrank from the idea of making any discovery in that quarter. Therefore, I studiously avoided riding in the direction which, so far as my memory served me, I had been taken that day by Mrs. Burnaby. ‘“‘ Possessed of an income of four hundred a year, it might be supposed that I had sufficient resources without the necessity of recurring to my evil ways of life. But without being able to account for it, [ am forced to confess that I loved the excitement thereof. It had become to me the same as hunting or steeplechasing to those who indulge in such sports. At this moment, when, thank Heaven! my mind has assumed a better tone, [ recoil in horror and with a shuddering aversion from the bare idea that I was ever influenced by such a morbid state of feeling. Such, however, was the case then, and from time to time I apparelled my- self in my male garb, and, mounting my horse, rode out at night upon the highway. Never did I perpetrate any violence; never did I harm a single hair of a human being’s head. One night, in the neighbourhood of Hornsey, I stopped an old man who was driving along in a gig. He assured me he had nothing about him worth the taking. I made him hand me his purse which, as I found, contained but a few shillings. I gave it him back again, and was about to gallop away, when he said boldly that if I knew him better I could no doubt make his services available. He then told me, after a little more conversation, that his name was Solomon Patch, and that he kept a public-house in Agar Town, St. Pancras, that he was acquainted with a great many persons who lived at the expense of others, and that he gave an ex- cellent price for whatsoever valuables might be brought to him. I replied that I should not forget the intimation, and (C(O) COMICoooks