The Orange Girl
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Walter Besant. The Orange Girl
PART I. HOW I GOT INTO THE KING'S BENCH
CHAPTER I. I AM TURNED OUT INTO THE WORLD
CHAPTER II. A CITY OF REFUGE
CHAPTER III. A WAY TO LIVE
CHAPTER IV. LOVE AND MUSIC
CHAPTER V. WEDDING BELLS AND THE BOOK OF THE PLAY
CHAPTER VI. A CITY FUNERAL
CHAPTER VII. THE READING OF THE WILL
CHAPTER VIII. THE TEMPTATION
CHAPTER IX. THE CLAIM AND THE ARREST
CHAPTER X. THE ARREST
PART II. OUT OF THE FRYING PAN INTO THE FIRE
CHAPTER I. RELEASE
CHAPTER II. HOW I GOT A NEW PLACE
CHAPTER III. THE MASQUERADE
CHAPTER IV. WHO SHE WAS
CHAPTER V. THE BLACK JACK
CHAPTER VI. A WARNING AND ANOTHER OFFER
CHAPTER VII. JENNY'S ADVICE
CHAPTER VIII. A SUCCESSFUL CONSPIRACY
CHAPTER IX. NEWGATE
CHAPTER X. THE SAME OFFER
CHAPTER XI. THE IMPENDING TRIAL
CHAPTER XII. THE TRIAL
CHAPTER XIII. THE COMPANY OF REVENGE
CHAPTER XIV. AN UNEXPECTED CHARGE
CHAPTER XV. THE FILIAL MARTYR
CHAPTER XVI. THE SNARE WHICH THEY DIGGED FOR OTHERS
CHAPTER XVII. THE CASE OF CLARINDA
CHAPTER XVIII. THE FALLEN ALDERMAN
CHAPTER XIX. THE END OF THE CONSPIRACY
CHAPTER XX. THE HONOURS OF THE MOB
CHAPTER XXI "GUILTY, MY LORD"
CHAPTER XXII. FROM THE CONDEMNED CELL
CHAPTER XXIII. AN UNEXPECTED EVENT
CHAPTER XXIV. COMMUTATION
CHAPTER XXV. TRANSPORTATION
CHAPTER XXVI. THE LAST TEMPTATION
Отрывок из книги
In the year 1760 or thereabouts, everybody knew the name of Sir Peter Halliday, Merchant. The House in which Sir Peter was the Senior Partner possessed a fleet of West Indiamen which traded between the Port of London and Jamaica, Barbadoes, and the other English Islands, taking out all kinds of stuffs, weapons, implements, clothing, wine, silks, gloves, and everything else that the planters could want, and returning laden with sugar in bags, mahogany, arrack, and whatever else the islands produce. Our wharf was that which stands next to the Tower stairs: the counting-house was on the wharf: there the clerks worked daily from seven in the morning till eight at night. As a boy it was my delight to go on board the ships when they arrived. There I ran up and down the companion: into the dark lower deck where the midshipmen messed and slept among the flying cockroaches, which buzzed into their faces and the rats which ran over them and the creatures which infest a ship in hot latitudes and come on board with the gunny-bags, such as centipedes, scorpions, and great spiders. And I would stand and watch the barges when they came alongside to receive the cargo. Then with a yeo-heave-oh! and a chantey of the sailors, mostly meaningless, yet pleasant to hear, they tossed the bags of sugar into the barge as if they were loaves of bread, and the casks of rum as if they had been pint pots. Or I would talk to the sailors and hear stories of maroon niggers and how the planters engaged the sailors to go ashore in search of these fierce runaways and shoot them down in the mountains: and stories of shark and barra coota: of hurricanos and islands where men had been put ashore to starve and die miserably: of pirates, of whom there have always been plenty in the Caribbean Sea since that ocean was first discovered. Strange things these sailors brought home with them: coral, pink and white: preserved flying-fish: creatures put in spirits: carved cocoanuts: everybody knows the treasures of the sailor arrived in port.
This, I say, was my delight as a boy: thus I learned to think of things outside the narrow bounds of the counting-house and the City walls. Marvellous it is to mark how while the Pool is crammed with ships from all parts of the world, the Londoner will go on in ignorance of any world beyond the walls of the City or the boundaries of his parish. Therefore, I say, it was better for me than the study of Moll's Geography to converse with these sailors and to listen to their adventures.
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Only one thing relieved the blackness of the walls. It was a hatchment with the family shield. Everyone would believe, so splendid is this coat of arms, that our family must rank among the noblest in the land. But the time has passed when the City Fathers were closely connected by blood with the gentry and the aristocracy of the country: of our family one could only point to the shield: where we came from, I know not: nor how we obtained so fine a shield: nor to what station of life my ancestors originally belonged. Family pride, however, is a harmless superstition: not one of us, I am sure, would surrender that coat of arms, or acknowledge that we were anything but a very ancient and honourable House.
When I entered the house, accompanied by Alice, I found the hall and the steps, and even the street itself, which is but narrow, crowded with the humbler class of mourners. There was a whisper of surprise, and more than one honest hand furtively grasped mine. Well: there would be few such hands to welcome Matthew.
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