The String of Pearls (1850), p. 391

OverviewTranscribeVersionsHelp

Facsimile

Transcription

Status: Complete


"Come," added Sir Richard, "yoa want both rest and refreshment, and you can have both here at this house. To-morrow I hope will end all your trials, my dear girl, and I shall live, I trust, to see you smile as you ought to smile, and to be as happy as only a very dim recollection of the past will make you."
"Ah, no—never happy."
"You must love some one. You must recover, and in the cares and joys of a new existence, you must only look back upon what has passed, as though you pondered upon the phantasma of some fearful dream; and when you see all around you smiling—"
"It will be cruel for them to smile, sir; and it is now cruel of you to speak to me of loving another, when you know my affections are with Ingestrie, in that world to which he has gone before me, but to which I look forward to as the place of our happy meeting, where we shall part again no more."
"Well, I thought I could find you a lover that would be to your mind when all these affairs were over."
"Sir?"
"Nay, be not offended. You know I am your sincere friend."
"I know you are, and that is what makes it so grievous to me to hear you talk in such a strain, sir."
"Then I will say no more."
"I thank you, Sir Richard; and I will forget what you have said, because I will recollect nothing from you, or committed with you, but kindness and consideration,"
Sir Richard smiled slightly for a moment, as he turned aside and spoke to his friend the fruiterer for some minutes in a low tone. The young girl who had, before behaved with such kindness to Johanna, took her by the hand, and led her upstairs.
"Come," she said, "you shall tell me all you have suffered opposite since we parted last, and I will speak to you of him whom you love."
"You are too good to me."
While all this was going on so close to him, Todd, with many oaths and execrations, was putting up his own shutters, which he did with a violence that nearly knocked the front of the window in. When he had finished, he walked into his house, and closing the door, he said, in a low tone—
"I must make up my mind what to say to Mrs. Lovett in the morning. I am afraid she will be hard to pacify."
At this moment a man peered out from the inn gateway opposite, and said to himself—
"Now begins my watch. I dare say now Mrs. Lovett has some particular reason for watching this barber, though she did not tell me. However, a guinea for one night's work is not bad pay."

CHAPTER LXXXVII.
MR, LUPIN MEDDLES WITH OTHER FOLKS* AFFAIRS.

"Brother Oakley, is sister Oakley within?"
This rather cool speech—cool considering all the circumstances—was uttered by no other than the Reverend Mr. Lupin to Mr. Oakley, who was working in his shop on the morning after Johanna had gone upon her perilous enterprise to Todd's.
Mr. Oakley looked up with surprise upon his features.
"What?" he said.
"Is sister Oakley within, brother?"
"Don't call me brother, you canting hypocrite. How do you make out any such relationship, I should like to know?"

Notes and Questions

Please sign in to write a note for this page

nesvetr

transcribed