Had she possessed that knowledge of the world, from
which her habits of life had completely excluded her, she might have
known that the large sum of money which she brought along with her,
might, judiciously managed, have been a passport to her into the
mansions of nobles, and the palaces of princes. But, however conscious
of its general power, which assumes so many forms and complexions, she
was so inexperienced as to be most unnecessarily afraid that the means
by which the wealth had been acquired, might exclude its inheretrix
from shelter even in the house of a humble tradesman.
While she thus delayed, a more reasonable cause for hesitation arose,
in a considerable noise and altercation within the house, which grew
louder and louder as the disputants issued forth upon the street or
lane before the door.
The first who entered upon the scene was a tall raw-boned hard-
favoured man, who stalked out of the shop hastily, with a gait like
that of a Spaniard in a passion, who, disdaining to add speed to his
locomotion by running, only condescends, in the utmost extremity of
his angry haste, to add length to his stride. He faced about, so soon
as he was out of the house, upon his pursuer, a decent-looking,
elderly, plain tradesman--no other than John Christie himself, the
owner of the shop and tenement, by whom he seemed to be followed, and
who was in a state of agitation more than is usually expressed by such
a person.
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