Year: 1875

PAWNBROKER'S STORY.


As A pawnbroker in a populous suburb
| of London / have had occasion to see
painful and sometimes not unpleasing
phases of society. Just to give an idea
of what occasionally comes under the
notice of persons in my profession,
shall describe a little incident and its
consequences. One evening | stepped
to the door for little fresh air and to
look about me for a moment. While ]
was gazing up and down the road sa v
tidilydressed young person step up to
our side door. She walked like a lady
and let me tell you that in nine cases out
of ten it's the walk and not the dress
| which distinguishes the lady from the
servant girl-and first she looked about
and then she seemed to make up her
mind in flurried sort of way, and in a
ter, holding out IL glittering something in
little, trembling hand covered with a
worn kid glove.


My assistant, 1saaCs, was stepping for
ward to take the seal, when | came in
and interposed The poor young thing
was SO nervous and shy and altogether so
unused to This work that l felt for her as
if she had been my own daughter al
most. She couldn't have been above
eighteen years old; too frail and gentle
a creature.


"If you please, will you tell me-" she
said timidly, in very sweet, low voice,
trembling with nervousness, "what is
the value of this seal?"


"Well, MISS" l said, taking the seal
into my hand and looking at tit was
an old fashioned seal, such as country
gentlemen used to wear, with q coat-of-
arms cut upon it" that depends upon
whether you want to pledge it or to sell
it outright"


Il am married, sir" and she said the
words proudly, and with dignity, though
still so shy, and seeming ready to burst
out crying; "and my husband is very
i'll ll-and-and--"


And then the tears wouldn't be kept
back any longer, and she sobbcd as if
her poor little heart would break.


"There, there, my DEAR" sad to her
don't cry; it will all come right in
time" and tried to comfort her as well
as could in my own rough-and-ready
way. 81 will lend you, ma'am,' | SAID
to her at last; "a sovereign upon this
seal; and if you wish to sell it, perhaps
may be able to sell it for you to ad-
vantage"


And SO l gave her a pound; it was
more than the thing was worth as a
pledge, and she tripped away with a
lighter heart, and many thanks to me,
and thought no more of the matter at
the time


The very next day, the day before
Christmas, there came into our place of
business very eccentric gentleman, who
had called upon US pretty often before,
not for the sake of ,pawning anything,
though he was generally dressed shabby
enough, too. But he was a, collector, one
OF those. men who are mad upon old
china and curiosities of all sorts.


"Anything in my way, to-day, Mr..
Davis?" he said, in his quick, energetic
manner, with a jolly smile upon his face,
and putting down the cigarette he was
smoking upon the edge of the counter.
The Rev Mr.. Broadman is collector
of gems and rings and seals, and in fact
of any stones that have heads or figures
engraved upon them, and I had been in
the habit of putting aside for him what
ever in this way passed through our
hands, for he gave us better price than
we should have got for them at the quar-
terly sales.


"The fact is, Davis" he used to say to
me, "tnese things are invaluable. Many
of them are as beautiful, on small
scale, as the old Greek sculptures, and
some of them even by the same artists,
and they are made no longer, you see,
for in this busy nineteenth century of
ours time and brains are too precious to
be spent on these laborious trifes." s





kind he wanted just then, it entered into
my head that would tell him about the
seal which had come into my possession
the evening before.


II told him the story somewhat as !
have just told it to you. He listened at
tentively to all l said. When had done
he looked at the seal and said:
~ observe that it has the heraldic en-
blem of baronet"


He then congratulated me upon the
way in which had acted. He asked,
too, for this young lady's address, which
she had given me quite correct, and then
he left the shop without another word.
You must give me leave to tell the
rest of the story in my own way, al
though it may be a very different way
from that which the reverend parsonage
employed in relating it to me afterward.
1t seemed that it was runaway
match. A country baronet's son who
had fallen in love with the clergyman's
daughter in the village where his father
lived, and they had run away together
and got married. Then they came up
to London, these two poor young things,
for neither his father, nor hers either,
for the matter of that, would have any
thing to say to the match-he full OF
hopes of getting on in the literary and
artistic line; and she, poor creature, full
of trust in him.


The project of living by literature did
not turn out what was expected. The