3-061-444 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

"Miss Nettlerash bolted", 1884. Illustration to a "A Painful Revelation": 'The drawing-room door was ajar, and just before twelve she heard the noise of someone trying the handle of the house door. She went into the hall and listened, for it might be a burglar. The old lady forgot that burglars do not generally force their way into houses by noisily fumbling at door-handles. The clumsy attempts continued, and then she heard what sounded very much like a bad word. "That is not Mr. Dawson!" thought she. "Who can it be? " At last the late comer rang the bell, and Miss Nettlerash summoned up courage to open the door. The gas had been turned out, so she held one of the tall silver drawing-room candlesticks in one hand, while she nervously pulled back the bolts and bars with the other. She was slower over the chain than quite suited the gentleman outside, for he rapped on the door with his fists, and said "Look sharp, Susan, itsh' only me."..It was, indeed, the Rev. C. T. Mudbury Dawson. Though his hat was on one side of his head, though his clerical waistcoat was unbuttoned, and his nose lighted up with a ruddy hue which was not that of health, she recognized him instantly'. Page 363 of "Fair Diana. By 'Wanderer' ... With illustrations by G. Bowers [A novel.]", 1884. [London, England]