So firmly resolved was she not to do what was wrong, that threats
and persuasions were alike unavailing. Added to this was the danger
of her encountering some one sent in search of her by the Crumps.
Under these circumstances, Peg bethought herself of the ultimate
object which she had proposed to herself in kidnapping Ida--that of
extorting money from a man who is now to be introduced to the
reader.
John Somerville occupied a suite of apartments in a handsome
lodging-house on Walnut Street. A man wanting yet several years of
forty, he looked a greater age. Late hours and dissipation, though
kept within respectable limits, had left their traces on his face.
At twenty-one he inherited a considerable fortune, which, combined
with some professional practice (for he was a lawyer, and not
without ability), was quite sufficient to support him handsomely,
and leave a considerable surplus every year. But, latterly, he had
contracted a passion for gaming, and however shrewd he might be
naturally, he could hardly be expected to prove a match for the wily
habitues of the gaming-table, who had marked him as their prey.
The evening before he is introduced to the reader's notice he had,
passed till a late hour at a fashionable gambling-house, where he
had lost heavily. His reflections, on awakening, were not of the
pleasantest.
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