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
When the meal was over, and Sally had finished her glass of beer, she
turned it over.
'That is the last of them,' she said; 'I don't care for it one way or
the other. Now tell me about that cove, who is he?'
'He is what he says--a betting man, and was when I first knew him; I
don't know what his real name is, but I don't expect it's Warbles. He
was a swell among them when I first knew him, and spent his money free,
and used to look like a gentleman. I was in a house at Newmarket at the
time, and whenever the races was on I often used to see him. Well, I
left there, and did not come across him for two years; when I did, I had
just come out of gaol; I had had two months for taking money from the
till. I met him in the street, and he says to me, "Hello, Kitty! I was
sorry to hear that you had been in trouble; what are you doing?"'
'What should I be doing?' says I; 'there ain't much chance of my getting
another situation after what has happened. I ain't a-doing nothing yet,
for I met a friend on the day I came out who gave me a couple of quid,
but it is pretty nigh gone.' 'Well, look here,' says he, 'I have got a
kid upon my hands: it don't matter whose kid it is, it ain't mine; but I
have got to keep it. It has been with a woman for the last three years,
and she has died. I don't care how it is brought up so as it is brought
up; it is nothing to me how she turns out so that she lives. I tell you
what I will do. I will give you ten pounds to furnish a room and get
into it, and I will pay you five shillings a week as long as it lives;
and if you ever get hard up and want a couple of pounds you can have
'em, so as you don't come too often.'
'Well, I jumped at the offer, and took you, and I will say Warbles has
been as good as his word. It wasn't long before I was turned out of my
lodging for being too drunk and noisy for the house, and it wasn't more
than a couple of years before I got pretty nigh as low as this. I had
got to know a good many queer ones when I was in the public line, and I
chanced to drop across one of them, and when I met him one day he told
me he could put me into an easy way of earning money if I liked, but it
was risky. I said I did not care for that, and since then I have always
been on that lay. For a bit I did very well; I used to dress up as a
tidy servant, and go shopping, and many a week I would get rid of three
or four pounds' worth of the stuff; but in course, as I grew older and
lost my figure and the drink told on me, it got more difficult. People
looked at the money more sharply, and I got three months for it twice. I
was allus careful, and never took more than one piece out with me at a
time, so that I got off several times till they began to know me. You
remember the last time I was in--I told you about it, and since then you
have been doing it.'
'But what will you do when I am gone?'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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