Search -
Myra Gray, Or, Sown in Tears, Reaped in Joy
Myra Gray Or Sown in Tears Reaped in Joy Author:Charles Clarke Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. MR. AND MRS. FERRERS COME TO TOWN FOR THE SEASON. |HE season was again at its height. In other words, six months more having passed over the h... more »eads of its votaries, the follies, luxuries, extravagancies, and therefore the vices, of fashion had well-nigh doubled. As carriages rolled through the streets, as trains swept the crossings, saving some trouble to the sweepers and not much defrauding them of their revenue, as club-houses, theatres, French opera, opened in increased numbers, all golden and glowing within, it became manifest to all that England was more wealthy, and therefore Englishmen more enviable, than ever. How her riches and her luxury shut out her povertyand crime from unobservant eyes ! How pleasantly we turn to the gilded equipages and rampant horses from the bespattered beggars that grovel beside them ! Beggar! egad, sir, what do we pay a police for ? To catch thieves, to prevent crime, to detect murder. Oh! unsophisticated noodle, where do you come from ? The wilds of Paris, or some equally benighted region of the Continent, where your theory is reduced to practice ? No, sir. To catch beggars, and hide them away from the sight of us, who might be offended by their unspoken supplication. To knock down apple-stalls. To remove obstructions. To make love to our cooks ; and to clear the streets on a drawing-room day. To return. The town was very gay, very bright, very cheerful, and very vicious east of Temple Bar. The feeling, too, of our fine ladies and gentlemen had begun to be hurt. It was clear that the old dandy, your veritable roue, your club-man, was going out. The names of the well-dressed loungers no longer sounded so long or so well, nor looked so handsome on the book of the West-end tradesmen, as heretofore. There were more Smiths, and Jone...« less