The Mysteries of the Court of London Vol. 4 — page 386: what you’re looking at

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

, 8 axid, with ane assumption of the most gnod- I have cast my eyes over it, I will return is to you.® humoured jocularity, “ Well, after, all this is really @ very pretty drama in which °we are engaged. Bat littie did I think yntjl yesterday that I should ever be calied upon to play the part of a matri- moni@ agent. I declare that my observation makes you blush, Penelope! Yet I think*that you will be well pleased when you #ee what a fine hus- band I have selected for you.” ° “Your Royal Highness may rest assured,” said Miss Arbuthnot,. “that it?is with no small degree of repugnance I suffer myself to become an ob- ject of such indelicate arrangements, Your con- duct has however left me a0 noice.” “I am afraid that 1 treated you somewhat harshly and cruelly the evening before last, when I saw you at Windsor Castle,” said the Prince: * but I had many things to vex me at the time.” “ And chiefly of all the loss of Lady Sackville,” observed Penelope, with some lktlesdegree of bit- teruess. e “TJ will not deny that her loss has vexed me cruelly,” answered the Prinee. “ But I see that you are jealous,” he added, laughing. ‘‘ Now this is certainly not a sentiment to be entertained by a young lady who is on the point of marriage with a very fine, handsome, and agreeable man.” “Then your Royal Highness has really exer- cised a sound discretion in the choice of a husband for my daughter ?” said Mrs. Arbuthnot ; “1 mean, sir, that you have borne in mind the observations I made upon the point, apd that you will not offer for Penclope’s accéptance an individual whum she - may be ashamed to acknowledge as her husband ?” ‘ ] hesitate not to say she will be proud of him,” answered the Prince. ‘I assure you he is goud- looking, with a fine military air——But tell me, Penelope, do you like moustaches ?” “Sir,” replied the young lady, colouring up to the very hair of her head, “ there sounds some- thing too much like a tone of banter in gour speech, to inspire me with much confidence as to the present proceeding. lam already sufficiently humiliated-—=” “Pray do not he angry, my dear Penelope,” in- terrupted the Princ’, passing his arm round her waist. “I only suught to make my peace with you by putting on my best possible humour: butif you feel offended, I can of course become as coldly dignified and freezingly haughty as ever I was in my life. I thought it better not to give too business-like and matter-of-fact &o air to the present transaction——" ° “ If that be indeed your motive, sir,” responded Miss Arbuthnot, “1 thank you for your kind consi- deration, and beg,that you will retain your present humour :"—but While she thus spoke, she gently disengaged herseif‘from the royal arm and moved a little nearer towards the extremity of the sofa. “ My dear madam,” asked the Prince, now turn- ing towards Mrs. Arbuthnot, “have yoa procured the letter of which you spoke to me yesterday ?” “T have, sir,” was the answer ;: and as she spoke, the lady produced the paper which she had suc- ceeded in abstracting fro. Mrs. Bredalbane’s writing-desk. “You will permit me to look at it,” said the Prince. “ Not that I mean to keep it,” he added, laughing, “ontil Miss Penelopg is introduced to her intended husband: and therefore the moment v “Rather permit me to read the conténta to yeur Royal Highness,” observed Mrs. Arbuthnot, with a significant look. “ You will find that it is worded: precisely as I told you yesterday, and that it is clearly corroborative of the tale told by the valet Joux and which I also described to you.” “Read the letter then,” said the Prines, in a short abrupt manner. “ You must really think mo very dishonourabfe to suppose for an instant that Teen eereerreennerrrne rr anne Ee ° THE MYSTEBIZS OF THE COURT I would keep the paper if entrusted in my hands, ° and evade the fulfilment of the bargain entered into between us yesterday.” “Your Royal Highness should neither be sur- prised nor offended that I adopt the ptoper pre- caution,” answered Mrs. Arbduthnot in a firm tone. * But listen, and [ will read the letter.” With the contents of this fragmentary docu- ment the reader is already acquainted: we need not therefore reproduce it here. Suffice it tosay that a gloom began fo settle upon the Prince's countenance ag soon as Mrs. Arbuthnot com- menced reading it aloud; and at the mention of that pointed allusion te the Princess Auyusta’s uonatural criminality, his Royal Highness gave a visible shudder. He said not a word, however, uotil she had finished; and even then he remained for’ upwards of a minute absorbed in a moody reverie. " “You two ladies,” he at length said, “ are ac- quaioted with a socret which vitally concerns the honour of my brother and my sister. Rest assured that I am prepared to fu'fil the conditions yester- day agreed upon. Ihave spoken to a gentieman— an intimate friend of my own—who ia willing, Pene- lope, to become your husband, Ags I said ere now in a good-humoured strain, and as I seriously re- peat at present, he is not one of whose personal appearance you need be ashamed. As for his so- cial position, he already pussesscs a certain snili- tary rank; and here,” continued the Priace, pro- ducing a sealed ‘document frum his pocket, “is a patent drawn out, conferriug upon him the title of a Baronet. An appoiatment, tv which is annexed an inucome of eight-bundred a-year, is likewise at his service. Thus you perceive | am ready to ac- complish my part of the bargain without delay. I gnay add that the gentleman to whom I allude, is at this moment within the walls of the pAlace, waiting to be intruduced to you. In short, he is in an ad- jowiog room. But now, what guarantee have I hat when all these conditions are fulfilled, fresh emands will not be made upon me—fresh docu- ments of horror produced--and the threatened ex- posure of fresh secrets held in terror over me?” . “Prince,” answered Penelope, speaking in a firm toue, and looking him fall in the face with a calm dignity of demeanour, “I know not what guarantee can possibly be given you in respect to the eventualities to which you allade. But this I solemnly affirm on my own account-~all I seek, ail I have ever souznt, is a position which shall »ave me from disgrace and poverty. This position your Royal Highness is now about te give me; and | can assure- you that: mine is not ao ungrateful heart. If ia every respect your royal word is ful- filled, I would sooner study to do you a service than work you an injury. Adgfor my mother, I believe that her sentiments are precisely the same.” “ Pene'ope has spuken se well, so tray, and so AOC) @) cS) CO