William Hepworth Dixon, White Conquest: Volume 2

[330] myself in a big empty room; the floor clean, the walls bright, and a small kiosk in one corner for the sale of cigars and cigarettes, at which a nice-looking matron waits for customers, who are slow to come.

“They suffer you to sell tobacco, madam? ”

“Yes, Sir, for the present,” sighs the patient creature; “ some of them want to put down the sale of tobacco and snuff, as they have put down that of beer and gin; a lecturer was here last week; and in a year or so they may get a majority of votes.”

“Your trade will then be gone?”

“Yes, clearly.”

“You may be the last of all your race?”

“Well, some one must be last in everything, I guess.”

I leave her with the full conviction that there lurks no large amount of wickedness in this sporting and smoking bazaar.

The case seems hard to men who have not helped to pass the Bill. So much depends on your consent! A necklace is a pretty thing to wear; but not a necklace such as Gurth, the Saxon, wore-fixed round his throat by force.

For my part, I have passed through many countries