London (England) -- History -- 18th century -- Fiction
I went home sadly. That Jenny should suffer the wreck and destruction of
her house in Soho Square, was hard: that she should, also, which was
much worse, be arrested on a capital charge and committed to Newgate:
that she should have nothing to say or to plead in defence: in revenge
for the part she had played in proving my innocence: these things, I
say, were difficult to understand. Why should she not plead 'Not
Guilty,' and leave it to the prosecution to prove that she was the owner
of the property or that she knew it was in her house? Who would believe
the word of the revengeful fury who swore to seeing the things taken to
the house by the old woman and her daughter? Would not a clever counsel
make her contradict herself? and confess, somehow, that she herself had
laid the things there by way of a trap?
So I argued, blind, in my anxiety.
'Will,' said Alice, 'you would meet misfortune by falsehood. Fie! You
would lay a trap set by a clever talker to catch this miserable ignorant
woman. Fie!'
'What then?' I cried. 'Ignorant or not she is a mischievous and a
revengeful woman. My dear, I would save Jenny at any cost.'
'I think Jenny is right, Will. She will meet the charge by simply
pleading "Guilty" to whatever they can prove against her: namely, having
the things in her house, knowing that they were stolen. I think it is
her wisest course. No questions will be asked: no one will believe that
a woman in her position could actually be guilty of receiving stolen
goods so worthless: it will be understood by everybody that she is
screening someone--some close relation--even at the risk of her own
life.'
I replied by a groan of dissent.
'Jenny is not an actress for nothing. She ought not to have bought the
things at all: or she ought to have destroyed them: this I suppose she
would have done, but she forgot: she was wholly occupied in saving you.
We must remember that with gratitude unspeakable, Will.'
'Yes, wife, God knows I do.'
'The world has been told over and over again that poor Jenny was once an
Orange Girl: do people ever expect Orange Girls to come of respectable
parents? To take guilt upon yourself--in order to screen your
mother--will appear to the world as a noble and generous act. It would
have taken you and me, Will, a month to discover the best way out of the
trouble. But Jenny saw her way at once.'
In the end Alice proved to be right. Jenny chose the very best thing
possible, as you shall see.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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