Confessions of a Young Lady: Her Doings and MisdoingsMarsh, Richard
General
Confessions of a Young Lady: Her Doings and Misdoings
Marsh, Richard
England -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Girls -- Fiction; Women -- Fiction
It did not seem very promising. Kenrick did not sound like Miller. And
I could not conceive of his having any connection with such an
institution as The People's Stock Exchange. I was sorry for it if he
had. Still up the stairs I went--it was a long way up to the fourth
floor; and there, in black letters on a white tablet, amidst lots of
other names, was "No. 169. The People's Stock Exchange. Mr George
Kenrick." I went first round one corner, then round another--there was
not a soul to be seen from whom to ask the way--and I was commencing
to wonder if I should have to keep on chasing myself round corners for
the rest of the afternoon when all of a sudden I heard someone
shouting at the top of his voice. A door opened at the end of the
passage in which I was and someone came out, addressing to someone
within remarks which were uttered in such stentorian tones that it was
quite impossible to avoid hearing what he said--
"I'll tell you what you are, Mr Kenrick--you're a scoundrel and a
thief! And clever though you are, you'll find yourself at the Old
Bailey yet before you've done--you dirty rascal!"
He shut the door with a bang which thundered through the place. He was
very tall, with a long grey beard, and his hat crammed over his eyes;
and as he strode past me he did look so very angry that I did not dare
ask who he had been speaking to. But the language he had used was so
extremely applicable to the Ogre, that I felt convinced it must be he.
So I went to the room out of which he had come. Sure enough, on the
glass door was "The People's Stock Exchange." I entered, and there, on
the other side of a polished counter, was Mr Stephen Miller.
"I have found you again," I remarked.
He was talking to a young man--quite a boy, in fact--who was moving
towards the door as I went in.
"You'll be here at the usual time on Monday?"
"Yes, sir."
The youth regarded me with what I almost felt was a twinkle in his
eye; though I had not the remotest notion what he meant by such
behaviour. And the Ogre and I were left alone. I repeated my previous
observation.
"You perceive that I have found you again."
"It would seem so." He stood rubbing his chin and regarding me with a
contemplative kind of air. He was ever so much better dressed than he
ever was in our part of the world; but, in spite of it, he looked just
the same disreputable, untrustworthy object. If anything, his face was
fatter and redder than it used to be; and his eyes more bloodshot.
"Come into my private office."
He led the way into a room beyond, and I followed. When we were in he
stared at me again; and this time he grinned.
"You're quite a beauty--that's a pretty frock of yours. Perhaps it's
the frock that does it--you never know." His manner made my cheeks
burn. "Well, and how are they all at The Chase?"
Fancy his having the impudence to ask such a question!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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