The Mysteries of the Court of London Vol. 7 — page 75: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Sans aapor DS se 63 THE MYSTERIES OF TH# COURT. had not experienced a sentiment of pride at the and so opposite—one infusing sorrow and the thought of calling this inimitable being Iris wife. other joy into her heart. Sagoonah had listened And he déd harbour that feeling~not because she at the door until this leave-taking reached her was a princess of the loftiest rank: he forgot at | ears; and then she glided down into the hall to be the instant her royal descent—ho beheld in her; in readiness to open the front door fur Mr. Red- snly a magzwificent, an interesting, a nobiy-minded, . chffe. He descended the stairs—he traversed the and a loving woman. hall—Sagoonah opened the door; and as he turned “Indora,” he said, “never, never can I forget; to bid her good night, he was strutk by tho ex- the words you have just spoken |—they prove all | pression of her large brilliant eyes. They asemed the generosity of your heart. But listen to me | to vibrate upon him with a light that made him once again. You know ali———yes, F am aware : for a moment tremble—with a lustre that was se that you must know all; and therefore you are not | sinister and so supernal, it smote him ag it were ignorant of the horrible myatery-——” with an unknown terror. The recollection flashed “Qh, Clement! there is justice in heaven,” ex- | to his mind that this was not the firat time he had clhimed Indora; “and that mystery will be cleared | seen those eyes thus flame and burn as they ‘wore up! But even if it ‘were not, think you that | fixed upon him: he stopped short, and was about I———This is however a topio,” she ejaculated, | to ask Sagoonah wherefore she thus regarded him, “on which we must speak presently !” —when all of a sudden those eyes of her's were “Be it ao,” answered Redcliffe. “And now, | cast down—her demeanour became profoundly re- Indora, if all these things be well weighed in your | spectful—and Redcliffe suffered the question te mind, and if you be firmly conviaced that your | remain unasked. life’s happiness can be ensured by linking your! Hoe bade the ayah good night—and issued from fate with mine, the affirmative response shall go} the dwelling: but as he traversed the garden, and forth from my lip.” ‘ thence ¢outinued his way along the lane leading * Clement, I am thme!” answered Endora : aud | towards the main road, he felt as if he were atill her head sank upon his breast. followed by Sagoonah’s haunting eyes. He clasped her in his arme: she wept with a variety of conflicting feelings: for joy and sorrow were now strangely blended in her heart. Her love was to be crowned with bappiness—bat she had lost a father ! “Ob, Clement i" she marmured, “you know . not what I feel—you cannot eompreend it! The {| Tus dask was eetting in on the evening of the hope of long, long years is about to be fulfilled; fullowing day, when two individuals who had been and I have it im my power to testify unto you all; walking and holding « long discourse togother in the immensity of the leve which I experience. I | the neighbourhood of Oaklands, shook hands and know that you seek not for titles—that you eare | separated. One was Purvis, the old steward, who not for earthly honours: bat you will at least feel | now retraced his way towards Marchmont’s ducal a pleasure in being placed in a position whieh will | seat: the other was Clement Redcliffe, who hastily evable you to do good te year fellow-creatares, | struck across the fields in the direction of a cottage Clement,” she added, in a voice that rose with a | where he had been wont to take up his quarters on sort of exultation, “it is not a Princess who offers the three er four ocecasions thad he had visited this you her hand: ié is m Queen who can seat you by | part of the country. . her side upon a throne, and who will rejoice to ase | In a few minutes he reached the road, along her subjects governed by the wisdom and the phi-| Which he had to continue his way for about a lanthropy of such a man f" quarter of a mile, in order to arrive at that cot- “Tndora, what mean you?” asked Redcliffe in | tage: but he was destined to experience an ad- astonishment. “Your father-———” venture ere that walk, brief though it were, was “He is no more,” replied the eastern ledy. | accomplished. For as he was proceeding aldng, it “This very evening, high dignitaries from my own | Struck him that he observed a fynale form lying kingdom have sought me here to communicate the | by the side of the road in the shade of the hedge. intelligence. And, Oh! if you found me not | He approached the object, and found that his sur- weeping and displaying all the evidences of grief | mise was correct. A female lay motionless there, on account of my father’s death, it was because | with her face downward ; and Redcliffe was instan- until this ssement I subdued all [ felt——I veiled i¢ | taneously smitten with the idea that it was « to the utmost of my pewer—I would not scem sad | Corpse which he looked upon. He hastened to when you enme to tall me that you would aceept | raise her up; and so far as the obscurity of the me as your bride.” ‘ evening would permit, he saw that she was de- Mr. Redcliffe sympathized with Indora on the | cently clad, that she was a woman of tall stature, lose of her father; and they now weng on to con- | aad that she possessed the remains if not of actual verse on those topics to which they had hitherto | beauty, at least of a countenance that had not only alluded distantly, and which they had agreed | been ill-locking. The woman was comparatively to postpone until other matters were settled. But! young too—not masy years beyond thirty: but we need not penstrate farther into the discourse | she had a haggard osreworn aspect. Her eyes which thus between them: suffice it to say | Were closed: the warmth of life was howover in that it wee leng and solemnly interesting to both. | her; and Redetiffe wa#'thus relieved from the ides. Tt was, a little past ten o'clock when Clement | thst he was gasing upon the victim of a fout Radeliffe took his leave of Indora, and issued from | ceite, or of starvation, exhaustion, or of sudden ti apartment,—leaving her to reflect upon the | Datura! death. tgp seein ineidente of the evening, so conilicting | The cottage, as we have said, wae St no great Re GED ¢ CHAPTER ACV. THE CONSERVATORY. ecomniclacclks (CO)