All remonstrances were vain. The beadle-faced man was bigoted against
me. Represented as a lawless violator, and a remorseless disturber of
the Sunday peace, I was conducted to the Halls of Justice. Next morning,
my rather gentlemanly appearance procured me a private hearing from the
judge. But the beadle-faced man must have made a Sunday night call on
him. In spite of my coolest explanations, the circumstances of the case
were deemed so exceedingly suspicious, that only after paying a round
fine, and receiving a stinging reprimand, was I permitted to go at
large, and pardoned for having humbly indulged myself in the luxury of
public worship.
TEMPLE SECOND
A stranger in London on Saturday night and without a copper! What
hospitalities may such an one expect? What shall I do with myself this
weary night? My landlady won’t receive me in her parlour. I owe her
money. She looks like flint on me. So in this monstrous rabblement must
I crawl about till, say, ten o’clock, and then slink home to my
unlighted bed.
The case was this: The week following my inglorious expulsion from the
transatlantic temple, I had packed up my trunks and damaged character,
and repaired to the paternal, loving town of Philadelphia. There chance
threw into my way an interesting young orphan lady and her aunt-duenna;
the lady rich as Cleopatra, but not as beautiful; the duenna lovely as
Charmian, but not so young. For the lady’s health, prolonged travel had
been prescribed. Maternally connected in old England, the lady chose
London for her primal port. But ere securing their passage, the two were
looking around for some young physician, whose disengagement from
pressing business might induce him to accept, on a moderate salary, the
post of private Esculapius and knightly companion to the otherwise
unprotected pair. The more necessary was this, as not only the voyage to
England was intended, but an extensive European tour to follow.
Enough. I came; I saw; I was made the happy man. We sailed. We landed on
the other side; when, after two weeks of agonised attendance on the
vacillations of the lady, I was very cavalierly dismissed, on the score
that the lady’s maternal relations had persuaded her to try, through the
winter, the salubrious climate of the foggy Isle of Wight, in preference
to the fabulous blue atmosphere of the Ionian Isles. So much for
national prejudice. _Nota Bene._--The lady was in a sad decline.
Having ere sailing been obliged to anticipate nearly a quarter’s pay to
foot my outfit bills, I was dismally cut adrift in Fleet Street without
a solitary shilling. By disposing, at certain pawnbrokers, of some of my
less indispensable apparel, I had managed to stave off the more
slaughterous onsets of my landlady, while diligently looking about for
any business that might providentially appear.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account