Snivel here receives a nostrum from the lady’s purse. “Truly,!—Madame,”
he says, in taking leave of her, “the St. Cecilia will regret you-we
shall all regret you; you honored and graced our assemblies so. Our
first families will part with you reluctantly. It may, however, be some
satisfaction to know how many kind things will be said of you in your
absence.” Mr. Snivel makes his last bow, a sarcastic smile playing over
his face, and passes into the street.
On the following day she encloses a present of fifty dollars to Tom
Swiggs, enjoins the necessity of his keeping her visit to the
poor-house a secret, and takes leave of Charleston.
And here our scene changes, and we must transport the reader to New
York. It is the day following the night Mr. Detective Fitzgerald
discovered what remained of poor Toddleworth, in the garret of the
House of the Nine Nations. The City Hall clock strikes twelve. The
goodly are gathered into the House of the Foreign Missions, in which
peace and respectability would seem to preside. The good-natured fat
man is in his seat, pondering over letters lately received from the
“dark regions” of Arabia; the somewhat lean, but very
respectable-looking Secretary, is got nicely into his spectacles, and
sits pondering over lusty folios of reports from Hindostan, and various
other fields of missionary labor, all setting forth the various large
amounts of money expended, how much more could be expended, and what a
blessing it is to be enabled to announce the fact that there is now a
hope of something being done. The same anxious-faced bevy of females we
described in a previous chapter, are here, seated at a table, deeply
interested in certain periodicals and papers; while here and there
about the room, are several contemplative gentlemen in black. Brother
Spyke, having deeply interested Brothers Phills and Prim with an
account of his visit to the Bottomless Pit, paces up and down the room,
thinking of Antioch, and the evangelization of the heathen world.
“Truly, brother,” speaks the good-natured fat man, “his coming seemeth
long.” “Eleven was the hour; but why he tarryeth I know not,” returns
Brother Spyke, with calm demeanor. “There is something more alarming in
Sister Slocum’s absence,” interposes one of the ladies. The house seems
in a waiting mood, when suddenly Mr. Detective Fitzgerald enters, and
changes it to one of anxiety. Several voices inquire if he was
successful. He shakes his head, and having recounted his adventures,
the discovery of where the money went to, and the utter hopelessness of
an effort to recover it; “as for the man, Toddleworth,” he says,
methodically, “he was found with a broken skull. The Coroner has had an
inquest over him; but murders are so common. The verdict was, that he
died of a broken skull, by the hands of some one to the jury unknown.
Suspicions were strong against one Tom Downey, who is very like a
heathen, and is mistrusted of several murders. The affair disturbed the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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