Self-Raised; Or, From the DepthsSouthworth, Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte
General
Self-Raised; Or, From the Depths
Southworth, Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte
Fiction
Lord Vincent paced up and down the wet and dirty stone floor, until
at length the door opened and McRae, the officer who arrested him,
entered.
"Ah, you have come at last. I wish to be informed why we have been
left here all this time? Everyone else has been removed," exclaimed
the viscount.
"My lord, those poor creatures who were brought here during the
night were not arrested for any grave offense. Some were brought in
only to keep them from perishing in the snowstorm, and others for
drunkenness or disorder. The sitting police magistrate disposes of
them. They will mostly be discharged. But you, my lord, are here
upon a heavy charge, and you are to go before Sir Alexander
McKetchum."
"Why, then, do you not conduct me there? Do you mean to keep me in
this beastly place all day?"
"My lord, your examination is fixed for ten o'clock; it is only nine
now," said McRae, passing on to the inner room, from which he
presently appeared with Faustina.
Wretched did the poor creature look with her pale and tear-stained
face, her reddened eyes and disheveled hair; and her rich and
elegant white evening dress with its ample skirts and lace flounces
bedraggled and bedabbled with all the filth of the station house.
"I have had a horrid night! I have been in worse than purgatory. I
have not closed my eyes. I wish I was dead. See what you have
brought me to, Malcolm! And--only look at my dress!" sobbed the
woman.
"Your dress! That is just exactly what I am looking at. A pretty
dress that to be seen in. What the demon do you think people will
take you for?" sneered his lordship.
"I do not know! I do not care! poor trampled lily that I am!"
"Poor trampled fool! Why didn't you change that Merry Andrew costume
for something plainer and decenter before you left the castle?"
"Why didn't you tell me to do it, then? I never thought of it.
Besides, I didn't know what this beast of a station house was like.
No carpets, no beds, no servants. And I'm dying for want of them
all. And now I must have my breakfast. Why don't you order it,
Malcolm?" she whimpered.
"I am afraid they do not provide breakfasts any more than they do
other luxuries for the guests of this establishment," replied the
viscount, with a malignant laugh.
"But I shall starve, then," said the poor little animal, bursting
into tears.
"I cannot help it," replied the viscount, very much in the same tone
as if he had said: "I do not care."
But here McRae spoke:
"My lord, there is nearly an hour left before we shall go before the
magistrate. If you wish, therefore, you can send out to some hotel
and order your breakfast brought to you here."
"Thank you; I will avail myself of your suggestion. Whom can I
send?" inquired the viscount.
"Christie, you can go for his lordship," said McRae to his
subordinate, who had just entered the hall.
Christie came forward to take the order.
"What will you have?" inquired Lord Vincent, curtly addressing his
"sweet angel."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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