The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1883-06-30
COPPERFIELD COURT.

It would be difficult to point out the
exact spot where Copperiield Court once
stood.
Suffice it to say that the metropolis has
been robbed ofitS SeXiStencea Il great many
years ago.
1t was 10 thoroughfare, being only
sort of bay out Of Il once great, fashion,
able river of street.
1t held six houses, two on each side
and two across the end, and there was IL
placard bearing the words, "No pedlars
permitted to enter.''
Number one contained old MI. Flack
and his wife, but they were each seven
ty years old, and rheumatic.
Number two sheltered the deformed
little librarian of a certain library in the
city, and his cOnsumptive young sister.
Number three held-how, they only
knew-a schoolmaster's widow and her
four daughters.
Number four was occupied by all old
lady who had Il son at sea, an officer OH
Il vessel in the navy.
lie was always being expected home,
and branches OF coral, Chinese curiOsi-
ties and boxes Of foreign jellies and con-
serves attcsted to the fact that he did
rctunf fsSsss9casionally, but the chances
were that he would be in mid-ocean at
amy given date.
Number five was occupied by Miss
Cornelia Copperlield, Il single lady of
eight-and-forty, and very old poodle.
And number six, being haunted, was
left to it's ghost.
Probably want of patronage rather
than the placaTd banished the pedlars.
The reason why Copperiield Court
people set their faces SO sternly against
pedlars was that they were not genteel.
And the people OF Copperticld Court
were genteel or nothing.
Its occupants all lived on limited in
comes, and not one of the ladies had
even earned a penny III her life.
Mr.. Flack had a pension under the
Government.
The librarian was connected with q
wonderfully genteel society.
A naval Otlicer's mother is a person of
position.
And so is schoolmaster's widow
sometimes.
And Miss Cornelia CoppcrGeld was
the poor relation of the magnificent
C0ppericld who owned the court, was
said to be worth a million, and who had
presented the small dwelling in which
Miss Cornelia lived to his cousin, her
mother, a lady always alluded to by Miss
COrnelia as "my late ma"
a ghost is seldom vulgar, though
sometimes alarming, and the ghost at
number six was that of a bankrupt bank
er who had shot himself.
Occasionally a carriage, with several
men III livery perched upon it, paused at
the entrance to the court, and q fat lady,
in fine clothes, and a thin gentleman,
with Il great diamond OH his bosom, en-
tered Miss Cornelia Copperfield's door.
1t was then whispered through the
court that that lady's ''family" had cal
led upon her.
This might have continued for many
years but that Mrs. Rooney came into
her grandfather's property, after hav-
ing quite given up to the idea of his
dccease, for lie lived to be a hundred and
two years OF age, minus a few months,
the exact number of which may easily
be obtained by q reference to the regis
ter's book at Somerset House.
Feeling herself entitled to be a landed
proprietor, she employed an agent to buy
her bit OF house.
The agent having looked about him,
proposed No. 8, Copperiield Court.
MIR. Copperlield, weary Of a tenant
who paid no rcnt--wo alludc to the
bankers ghost-agrecd to the price Of
fered, and one morning the housekcep-
ers OF the court pccped through their
green blinds upon the arrival of Mrs.
Rooney's household goods; and two
boarders came with Mrs. Rooney. One
was young man who habiIually wore
Il red shirt.
The other was a foreigner in shabby
old black.
lie looked genteel but alasl appear
ances are deceitful.
On the morning after his arrival he
was seen to leave the court bearing Il
small tray on which were ranged in rows
pipes Of all sorts, except very costly
ones.
They were china pipes, with painted
flowers upon them, the humble clay du-
deem, and others more or less aristocra-
tic.
Pedlars were not admitted to the
court, but one had come there to reside.
"That l am alive to-day" said the
scloolmaster's widow, ''is a proof that
one can live through anything"
AS for Miss Copperfeld, she shut her.
self up in her tlOwery chintz bower, and
4. seemed inclined to remain there for
ever.