The Bedford-Row Conspiracy | Page 3

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THE BEDFORD-ROW CONSPIRACY

Contents.
I. Of the loves of Mr. Perkins and Miss Gorgon, and of the two great
factions in the town of Oldborough.
II. Shows how the plot began to thicken in or about Bedford Row.
III. Behind the scenes.
Footnote:
A story of Charles de Bernard furnished the plot of "The Bedford-Row
Conspiracy."

THE BEDFORD-ROW CONSPIRACY

CHAPTER I.

OF THE LOVES OF MR. PERKINS AND MISS GORGON, AND OF
THE TWO GREAT FACTIONS IN THE TOWN OF
OLDBOROUGH.
"My dear John," cried Lucy, with a very wise look indeed, "it must and
shall be so. As for Doughty Street, with our means, a house is out of the
question. We must keep three servants, and Aunt Biggs says the taxes
are one-and-twenty pounds a year."
"I have seen a sweet place at Chelsea," remarked John: "Paradise Row,
No. 17,--garden--greenhouse--fifty pounds a year--omnibus to town
within a mile."
"What! that I may be left alone all day, and you spend a fortune in
driving backward and forward in those horrid breakneck cabs? My
darling, I should die there--die of fright, I know I should. Did you not
say yourself that the road was not as yet lighted, and that the place
swarmed with public-houses and dreadful tipsy Irish bricklayers?
Would you kill me, John?"
"My da-arling," said John, with tremendous fondness, clutching Miss
Lucy suddenly round the waist, and rapping the hand of that young
person violently against his waistcoat,--"My da-arling, don't say such
things, even in a joke. If I objected to the chambers, it is only because
you, my love, with your birth and connections, ought to have a house of
your own. The chambers are quite large enough and certainly quite
good enough for me." And so, after some more sweet parley on the part
of these young people, it was agreed that they should take up their
abode, when married, in a part of the House number One hundred and
something, Bedford Row.
It will be necessary to explain to the reader that John was no other than

John Perkins, Esquire, of the Middle Temple, barrister-at-law, and that
Miss Lucy was the daughter of the late Captain Gorgon, and Marianne
Biggs, his wife. The Captain being of noble connections, younger son
of a baronet, cousin to Lord X----, and related to the Y---- family, had
angered all his relatives by marrying a very silly pretty young woman,
who kept a ladies'-school at Canterbury. She had six hundred pounds to
her fortune, which the Captain laid out in the purchase of a sweet
travelling-carriage and dressing-case for himself; and going abroad
with his lady, spent several years in the principal prisons