Dorothy's Double. Volume 1 (of 3)Henty, G. A. (George Alfred)
History
Dorothy's Double. Volume 1 (of 3)
Henty, G. A. (George Alfred)
Great Britain -- History -- 19th century -- Fiction
'Perhaps you will think differently some day, Sally; and, after all, two
people can get on well enough together without much love. Well, have her
ready in three days, Kitty; but there is no use in my coming here for
her. Of course, the girl must have a box, and you will want a cab. Drive
across Westminster Bridge and stop just across it on the right-hand
side. Be there as near as you can at eight o'clock in the evening; that
will suit me, and it ought to suit you. It is just as well you should
get her out of the court after dark, so that she won't be recognised in
her new things, and you will get off without being questioned. I shall
be there waiting for you, but if anything should detain me, which is not
likely, wait till I come.'
When he had gone the girl flung her bonnet into a corner, then knelt
down and made up the fire; then she produced two mutton chops from her
pocket and placed them in the frying-pan over it.
'Good ones,' she said. 'I got them at a swell shop near Buckingham
Palace; they were outside, just handy. Well, I s'pose them's the last I
shall nick; that is a good job.' She then took a jug out of the
cupboard. 'I have got sixpence left out of that half-crown I changed
yesterday. We have got bread enough, so I will bring in a quart.'
The woman nodded. She had of late, as she had told Warbles, quite
determined she would not keep the girl much longer with her, but the
suddenness with which the change had come about had been so unexpected
that as yet she hardly realised it. Sally was a limb, no doubt. She had
got quite beyond her control, and although the petty thievings had been
at first encouraged by her, the aptness of her pupil, the coolness and
audacity with which she carried them out, and the perfect unconcern with
which she started on the dangerous operation of changing the counterfeit
money, had troubled and almost frightened her. As the girl had said, she
had never been kind to her, had often brutally beaten her, and usually
spoke of her as if she were the plague of her life, but the thought that
she would now be without her altogether touched her keenly, and when the
girl returned she found her in tears.
'Hello! what's up?' she asked in surprise. 'You ain't been a drinking as
early as this, have you?' for tears were to Sally's mind associated with
a particular phase of drunkenness.
The woman shook her head.
'Yer don't mean to say as you are crying because I am going?' Sally went
on in a changed voice. 'I should have thought there was nothing in the
world you would be so pleased at as getting rid of me.'
'I have said so in a passion, may be, Sally. You are a limb, there ain't
no doubt of that; but it ain't your fault, and I might have done for you
more than I have, if it had not been for drink. I don't know what I
shall do without you.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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