If Mrs. Lecount takes
the business in hand and lays a trap for me--I decline her tempting
invitation by becoming totally ignorant of the whole affair the instant
any second person appears in it. Let the end come as it may, here I am
ready to profit by it: here I am, facing both ways, with perfect ease
and security--a moral agriculturist, with his eye on two crops at once,
and his swindler's sickle ready for any emergency.
For the next week to come, the newspaper will be more interesting to me
than ever. I wonder which side I shall eventually belong to?
THE THIRD SCENE.
VAUXHALL WALK, LAMBETH.
CHAPTER I.
THE old Archiepiscopal Palace of Lambeth, on the southern bank of the
Thames--with its Bishop's Walk and Garden, and its terrace fronting the
river--is an architectural relic of the London of former times, precious
to all lovers of the picturesque, in the utilitarian London of the
present day. Southward of this venerable structure lies the street
labyrinth of Lambeth; and nearly midway, in that part of the maze of
houses which is placed nearest to the river, runs the dingy double row
of buildings now, as in former days, known by the name of Vauxhall Walk.
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