The Mysteries of the Court of London Vol. 7 — page 211: what you’re looking at

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aT a a aa AE a TT a TTA a aT i IIT a ts aca TS 198 TUB MYSTERIFS OF THE CoULT, miss it: but finding that she did not, ho dropped ness, half @ippent, hal€ desperate, which charac. his handkerchief ds if quite ace lontally. Paieking | tarizes unserupulows individuals in certain circum. it up again, he took up the kvy with it: fur he! stances—he said to himself, “ Well, at all risks I had so managed tho fall of tho kerohiof that it | will keep tho monoy !” alighted immodiately over tho key ite@f. ify stule forth unperceived from the study, and Another dance was nov about to communce. | reascended to the ball-room. There, still unob- Lady Anastatiaf rising fiom her saat, hastened to | served, ho dropped the key near the very chair in introduce Chit to a partner; while some |} which Anastatia had beer seated when it glided young selon of tho aristocracy engaged Christina's | down from the bosom of hbr dres¥, He continued hand for that quadrille. Lord Rushbrook was | to loungo about the rooms: but there was a pre- now at hberty to act according to the evil prompt- | sentiment of evil floating in his mind: the pos- ings of his own unprineipled mind. He felt | session of the money did not contribute to his hap- tolerably well assured that he possessed tho key of | piness, nor relieve him from the apprehension thot the sale. In tho first place, ho thought that ho | the mode in which it had como into his hands recollecte Pit, as ib was a key of poculfar construc- | might be discovered. As for tho countenance tion; and in tho second place the words which he | itscli, he had no definite idea of 16: he had no had overheard his sister hastily whisper to her | souner caught a ghupso of 1t than i¢ was gone: as hushand, atrengthened the belief that he held in | soon as seen, it vanishel. Yet that he had really his posaesaion the means of supplying his neces- | beheld that countenanee, he could not conceal trom sities, As for compunction, he had none: bis} himself: he dared not flatter his mind that it was only thought now was how to achieve }<s object | u mere dolusiun. without belug observed or interrapted. Christina danced the quadrille with the young Ho sauntered through the rooms with a fashion- | scion of the aristocracy’; and when it was over she ablo lounging air: he passed cut upon the land- | was conddcted back to a sent. Searcoly had heg ing; and watehing a favourabie oppurtunity, he | Inte partner quitted her sido, than Lord Octavian glided down the stuaira. On reaching the hall, ! Meredith rejuincd her. Ho looked pie: but still accident again served his disroputnble purpose; fur | there was a certain expression of decisivencss in it happoned that nune of the domestics were | his regards and oa his hps, which immediately within view at tho moment. In less than a| struck Christina—for an instant even alarining minute the Viscount was in his brother-in-law’s her; for he bad on this night repeated that which study, where the light bad been left burning after | he hod ead to hor befure—nawely, that she would Avastatia’s brief interview with her husband ! drive him to despair. there. To open the safe and take out the cash- | “Will you favour mo with a fuw minutes’ con- box was now the work of an instant. A hasty | versation somewhere P” he asked, in a voice which, glance at the cuntents of the box showed the | thoueh low, sounded strange and even unnatural, Viseuvunt that they must consist of at least fittecn | as it the speaker were under tho 1ufluence of fecl- or sixteen hundred pounds; and he secured every | ings tensely wrung—painfully wrought up. golden cuin and every bank-notc about his own} “For what purpose, wy lord?” asked our young person. herone: and there was a tremulousness in her own Ou closing the safo—to° which he of course re- | yuiee. turned the cash-box—he liapponed to glance tu-| “Not tu repeat anything which you may not wards tho ‘window, the blind of which wag not | hear,” he quickly responded. “My ming is made pulled down; and at that very samo moment it} up! The resolutior L have adopted will, L know, atruck tho nogeman that a numan countenance ! afford you satifaction”’—ho piused, and added, was withdraga. Yes—a human countenance winch | “perhaps pleasure !” had dvid@fitly been louking upon him, and which; Christinw hesitated for an instant; and then ~ had observed this act of robbery unless in- | selt-reliant, conscious that she hud the power to deed it were a delusion—a phantom conjured up | perform her duty as she had aircady performed it by his own guilty conscienco at the instant a hour and a half back on this same evening — she Rushibrook felt the blood congeal into ice in his| said, “ Yes, my lord—I will giant you a fow veins: he could not have been gnore dismayed if | minutes’ private conversation, 1! you know whore his brother-in-law had suddenly made his appear- | we cau have 16.” ance—or if a pulice-constable had that moment! She took his arm; and ho said not another word placed a hand upon his shoulder. For several in- | as he led ber forth from tho ball room to the re- stants he stuod completely transfixed; and then he | freshment-room, where several other Jadics and rushed to the window. It was a muonlight night : | gentlemen were assenibled ; and two or three were the window looked upon a grass plat at tho side | at tho time returning frow the conservatory, which of the house : no human being was to be scen—no | opencd trom that apartment. nto this conservas gliding figure amongst tho trees. Still there was | tory Meredith led Christina: and we should ab- ample time during the Viscoynt’s consternation | servo that it was lighted with lamps—for it had for any individual to disappear round the angle of | been thrown open in order that the guosts might — thé building 5 and thus because he saw no one he | admire the choice exotics, the fruit-trees, and the dared not come to the conclusion that no one had | flowers, which from tropical climes had been trans- looked into the study. ferred thither. Rushbrook was irresolute how to act. Should{| Ovtavian and Christina were now alone toge- he réttrh €he notes and gold to the cash-bux and | ther in the conservatory ; and the young maiden, drdp thé key somewhere? or should he keep his | gently disengaging ber hand from her companion’s pluvider and rund every risk ? Prudence suggested | aru, glanced fur a moment at his countenance, as tlie fortier course—his dire necessities commanded | much as tu inquire fur what purpose she had been , Hho latter; so that at length—with that recklese- | brought hither and what he had to communicate. SE a aa TE a TY caer a era pT a a nA a GE COMIC OOO© SS (CO)