The Young Duchess; or, Memoirs of a Lady of Quality — page 286: what you’re looking at

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a rs ct a a lp ete oi Ah A Sn rt —__ ‘The day after to-morrow,” said. Olonetz. | ‘* Where ?” ‘* On Waterloo Bridge.” ““ Good,” said Olonetz. set-——”’ ‘‘ Beware, my lord!” interjected Mandeville. ‘* Zadouski will be upon his guard—he will look about him—and if. he sees that he is watched or dogged ‘“‘T am not accustomed to conduct my proceed- ings in a careless or incautious manner,” said Olonetz, with a smile. ‘ Rest satisfied on this head, Count Mandeville. If everything takes place as you have informed me, Zadouski shall be seized upon immediately after the interview : and on the following day you may call upon me and name the recompense which you seek for the service that you will have rendered.” “Good, my lord,” said Mandeville. ‘“ This is fairly spoken. I now beg to take my leave.” He bowed and retired, inwardly chuckling at the success which, as he supposed, must attend upon his double-faced policy. “ T have made a friend of the Grand Duke,” he said to himself; ‘and I have more than ever convinced Count Olonetz how necessary my ser- vices are to the Russian Government and how well they ought. to .be recompensed. But more ‘than this !—I ‘shall get ‘rid of Zadouski! Ha, ha! he will go back in due time to Siberia !” Mandeville issued from the Russian Plenipo- tentiary’s mansion—where, by the bye, he caught not the slightest glimpse of Ethel ; and retracing his way to his carriage, he proceeded to pay some other visits, which occupied the time until about three o’clock, when he drove to Ardleigh House. It was originally the intention of the young Duchess to return to’ Thornbury on the day after the masked ball at Lady Todmorden’s ; but the incidents which there transpired in reference to Sir Abel Kingston, had determined her to remain in town to await the issue of whatsoever proceed- ings Count Mandeville might adopt to rid her of the persecutions of one whom she dreaded and ab- horred. - She was seated in a small but elegantly fur- nished apartment; and though she had placed the most implicit reliance on Mandeville’s promise that he would save her from the persecutions of her enemy—aye, and though she even entertained a species of religious faith in his power to do so— yet she was naturally a prey to a certain amount of suspense, and she had been uneasy and agitated until the door was thrown open and the name of Count Mandeville was announced. “Dear, dearest Mary!” he said, with impas- sioned looks and accents, as he took her hand and pressed it in his own the instant the domestic had withdrawn. ‘“‘ Hippolyte, you have saved me!” said the Duchess, in a tone which showed that she was asserting a fact rather than putting an inquiry. ‘‘T am sure you have! A. secret voice speaks in my soul, telling me that it is so!” 1 And it is so, dear Mary,” responded Mande- ville. “Ah! I knew it! But, Oh! what a relief from suspense!’—and the superb bust of the Duchess swelled with a long deep-drawn sigh. ‘Did I not tell you, Mary, that from the very moment the clock struck eight on the evening of ‘“ A watch shall be TILE YOUNG DUCHESS; OR, MEMOIRS OF A LADY OF QUALITY. > the 1st of June—that is to say, last evening— your persecutor should trouble you no more?” ‘‘-Yes—such were the words you spoke, Hip- polyte,” murmured the Duchess: and she aban- doned to him her fine form as his arms circled her waist. “Well then, dearest Mary,” he said, ‘I have * accomplished my pledge. - Never again shall that man trouble you!” The Duchess shuddered for ‘a moment ; buéjstill she clung all the more tightly to Mandeville, as she said in a voice that was half hushed with terror, ‘‘ What have you done? how have you rid me of that man?” ~~ “Do not think, dearest,” replied Mandeville, with a reassuring smile, ‘that I have taken his wretched life—no, neither have I caused it to be taken. He lives!—blood has not been poured out ” ‘‘ Heaven be thanked !” murmured the Duchess ; “ for that would have been terrible!” “And yet I would even have done that for your sake!” answered Mandeville: and now he pressed his lips to her’s. ““'What has become of him?” she asked. “He is on his way to a foreign country, whence never shall he return to molest. you, Mary. He is bound for Afric’s torrid clime and drid wastes ; and there, in one of the Condemned Regiments of France—fulfilling a felon’s doom—herding with miscreants as vile as himself—must he linger out his wretched existence, unless death in mercy should send the shot of an enemy to cut him pre- maturely off.” ‘ But, good heavens !” cried the Duchess, “how is it that you possess a power so terrible as this ?” ‘* My influence is all-powerful with the I'rench Government,” responded Mandeville, ‘‘ and there- fore with the French Ambassador. | It was thus that the whole proceeding was accomplished ; and you, Mary, .need now no longer fear the wretch who ‘threatened to become so virulent a persecutor. No—neither are you in any way compromised — “But if he should tell the tale to those who have now got him in their power?” said the Duchess. “We will tell nothing, Mary. He will not even declare what his proper name is; and those who have him in their power are ignorant of it. He will be only too glad to conceal his identity beneath some feigned name which he must take, or which will be bestowed upon him if he choose to remain silent. To speak seriously, Mary, do you think for a moment that he will enter upon explanations—how he was an English baronet— how he was arrested for forgery—how it was sup- posed he had died in Newgate—how he became resuscitated—and how he was endeavouring to extort an enormous sum of money from a young and beautiful lady at the very instant that he was captured and tarried off for some unknown crime? No, no! he will tell nothing of all this! He knows’ full well that not for a single instant would one tittle of so extravagant a tale expe- rience belief, or do other than provoke jeering outbursts of incredulous laughter. In one word, Mary, make your mind easy upon every point.” “1 will—I do, Hippolyte. Oh, what power do you possess !—power of action—power of per- suasion! You are truly wonderful !” YN Wn) COMO