The Mysteries of the Court of London Vol. 4 — page 212: what you’re looking at

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

THE MYSTERIES OF TH’ COURT. ese eee Pap ty SPSS SS Sl sere oehedenensanensn—asp tage which Emma may have gained over his feel- ings by playing upof his senses, will be lost as sober reflection returns to him, Besides, where- fore has Bergami gone into the city now? Not to dine with a friend! No—it is preposterous: but to see Loftus———” “Ah! then you really believe,” interrupted Agatha, “that we are still as much encompassed by dreadful ptrils as ever?” “Do I think so?” ejaculated Mra. Ranger: “in- deed Ido! And now prepare yourself, Agatha— prepare yourself, I say,” she repeated in a deep voice and with an ominous look, “to hear the re- solve—the /ast resolve to which I have come—a resolve which is fixed and whence there shail be no retreat ” “And that resolve?” asked Agatha shuadder- ingly. ‘It is,” returned Mrs. Ranyer, fixing her eyes with reptile-like glare upon the youpg lady, “that unless Loftus positively and actually, of his own accord, proclains hia furgiveness of you this night, you must withhold the word from Maravelli’a ear that will spare his aud Lady Prescott’s life! You must let the physician do the work of death ac cording to his promise; aud then Bergami must die alao!” * Bat Emma?” interrupted Agatha, in a thick and scarcely audible voice: “will skg consent to this? Or will she not, in her vauity—her iufatua- tion—or whatever it may be, insist that Bergami shall‘live, for her to tfy her seductive arts upon him ?” “Foolish girl that you are!” said Mrs, Ranger: “can you not understand that Emma must be kept uorant of this ature of our proceedings ?” “Qh! yes—I understaad you now,” said Agatha, shuddering again. “ Would to God that lalso were iznorant-—— ” “Cease this pining and whiving,” injérrupted Mrs. Ranger sharply. “It ia nut your hand that will do these deeds—nor will suspicion fall upon us / Let Maravelli work on the one hand with his aub- tle poisons: 1 on the other will go and seek those instruments of crime, Kobolt and his gang, whom this night I will introduce secretly aud stealthily into the villa. They shall hide themselves in my room until you return from Maravelli’g: then if you tell me that your interview with Loftus ghas been of a tatisiactory character and that you have spoken the word to Maravelli to spare him and Lady Prescott—then, 1 say, may Bergami be spared also, and Kobolt with his cOmrades may go about their business, But if, on the other hand, on your return from Maravelli's, you tell me that the word has sot been spoken, but that Loftus and Lady Prescott will die, then must Bergami die a'so! Kobolt and his gang will do the work; and ere they quit hia room, to which I myself will conduct them, they in their experience of such matters shall give it the aspect of having been entered for the sake of plunder——” “Oh! cease these details,’ interrupted Agatha. “Do what you will—take any ,tep you consider necessary, no matter how desperate, to save us all from this gulf of ruin which yawns at our feet! But, my God! spare me the detaile—spare me the details! Would te heaven that the next week—or even the next four-and-twenty hours were over!" “ Now do not give way to this puling languagg,” 199 > said Mrs. Ranger harshly. “ Be a woman of courage —take a lesson from me. Have I not told you on former occasions that when circumstances require energetic action, I shake off the nervousness and the affectation of the woman, and buckle on an armour of strength and effrontery, such as men themtelves might be proud to wear? Come, you must not remaia too long away from the drawing-room. Go back—sustain your own gpirite—and do all you can to cheer your sisters, And mind,” added Mrs, Ranger impressively, “not a syllable—not a single syllable to either of them—least of all to Emma~— relative to the decision to which 1 have come in respect to Bergami! I now go forth to find Kobolt and his gang,avho, from what Maravellitold me this erning, ate sure to be fuund dragging the lake at the jetty.” Having thus spoken, Mrs. Ranger hastened away from the apartment where the preceding colloquy had taken place; avhile Agatha, after remaining for a few minutes to compose her looks and settle her thoughts, went back to the drawing-room. It was now nine o'clock, and Bergami had re- turned. When Agatha entered the room, she found him seated on a sofa, apparently engaged with a book ; but he wasin reality watching Emma's looke and manner, in order to see whether from any little circurastance he could possibly judge if she had betrayed to her sisters the scene which had taken place in the shade of the knot of trees. Prasentiy the young lady, catching his look and perceiving in it a kind of inquiring expression, seized an oppor- tunity to approach him under pretence of showing him a print at which she had been looking st the table; and as she bent down, she said in the loweat possible whisper, “I see that you are observing me -~-but I have not broken my word !” “It is well,” was the responsive whisper that came from the equerry’s lips, accompanied by a look of deep meaning. Emma fel: her heart leap with joy at this species of reuewed pledge of affection which Bergami had just given her; and she return@i ‘to ier seat, scarcely able to prevent her feelings from ‘being betrayed by her countenance. e > as CHAPTER CLXL ° ® FRESH SCENES AT THE JETTY. Tar Earl of Curzon and Colonel Malpas were sipping their wiue at the /Jotel Royal, between eight and nine o'clock, and discoursing on the object of their revisit to Geneva; and though there was evidently a forced familiarity subsisting between then, instead of the intimacy of friend- ship, they nevertheless were opening their minds pretty freely to each other, ° * Well, but about this pretty Genevese girl of whom we were talking just uow,” said Malpas, after a brief pause in the discourse: “what do you propose duing “ith regard to her ?” “J will go and see her to-morrow,” answered the Ear',” end no doubt shal have a pretiy scene of weeping, and hitterness, and reproscies, and so forth. But It must make up my mind to endure all that; and when the first ebullition of fooling has subsided, I shall enter upon the business-part COMMU O) LDOC cS) CO