The Mysteries of the Court of London, Vol. 5 — page 148: what you’re looking at

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

C+ a © = eee eee oD { THE MYSTEMES OF THE CQURT. 134 geen QenmetnpeetnteE oe pe nen were as difficult as they were urgent. Indeed, it ' troasyred up in the sanctity of that chaste taber- was ono of those positions in which a very decisive : nacle; and thus waa it that Luly Florina had no and almost desperate step could alone be taken. : confidante in tie general acceptance of the term. | And su®L a step did Rady Florina make up her| Tho consequence was that she now felt herself Ee a ee ee pe eee — a —ee see =. SD .cruellest ordeals through which she had ever passed; | of aceking the solitude of hee own chamber. mind to adopt. involved in a perplexing and embarrassing position Compusing her feelings as well as she was able, : Sho was‘anxious to go out for a couple of hours; the young Indy descended again to the drawing- and sho did notchoose the household to bo aware room. Her object was to learn in the course of | oP the circumstance. How was shq to manage? conversation what were her eunt’s plans for the | Though in the purity of her heart hating and evening. This was ascertained: Lady Mace | scorning anything that bordered upon duplicity, she donald was engaged to a whisg-party at an old|now found herself reducod to tho necessity of dowager’s in the samo Square; and Florina there- j scheming somewhat in order to accomplish her pur- foro perceived with inward satisfaction that tho | pose. After a. little delibération, tha young lady evening would beventirely at her own disposal—for | decidod how to act. She waited till het aunt had Laily Macdonald was by-no micans likely to re- | taken her departure to the house where she was to quire her to accompany her to an “old people’s| spend the evening ; and tl@n Florina ‘rang the bell party? : . - | efher own private chamber. Her principal lady's: Hours passed away2-hours full of poignant sus- | maid, whose name was Sophia, immediately an- pense and a torturing anxiety fdr the poor young | swered the sutnmons; and Florina said, “I feol lady. Never had an afternoon appeared s0 leagg: | 60 unwell this evening that I mean to lie down for nevay had the fout of time seemed to be so heavy. | an hour or two. Do not. let me be disturbed until Talk of ting having wings aud flying fleetly! he had | [ring for you.” a } noie then for Florina. By one only incident was| Sophia, suspecting nothing, promised to obey her the monotony of that afténoon rofjeved; aud this | young mistroa#s orders, and withdraw. It was now was an incident that enhanced to a harrowing de- | close upon nine o'clock ; and Florina, putting on her gree the young lady’s affliction. It evas when Deveril’s well-known knock sounded at the front door, and Florina almost immodiately afterwards heard Lha$ door closed with an unusual degree of, violence. Good heaven l the outrage was cunsum. | egress from tho rear of the premises, We should mated ——if an outrage it were? Because if add that she bad locked the dvor of her.own suite Deveril were really unfaithful and inconstant, and : of apartments ang had taken the koy with her. if Lady Saxondale’s story wero strictly true, then; On font did the young lédy procead to the Rogont's was it no unmerited outrage, but a well deserved | Park, which, for the behoof of persons unucquainted punishment. Ts with London, we may observe is at no very great The dinner-hour arrived; and Lady Macdonald, | distance from Cavendish Square. | who was one of thoso persone that dweltdong upon} As she wert on her way, Florina was several a particular topic and reverted often to it, talked the | times on the point of turning back. She felé that atraw-bonnet with a veil, and a a shawl —glided down a back staircase and succeded, in issuiny un- plaincst and simplest apparel—an unpretendinge ‘porceived froin the house, there being a means of | ee a a a a we Ome eee eee. whole gine about “the ovec-weening ingolonco.and | in one sense there was some impropriety in the step - lauhable coxcombry of that upstart Deveril.” And she was taking—that of a single young lady visiting poor Florina was compelled to sit and liston—and | a ‘single young.gentleman, and such a visit being not merely to listen, but alsu tu veil the feelings , paid at such an hour: bit then she thought to hor- which this constant harping on the same sensitive | self that after everything that had occurred on the chord tried sv cruelly. Yes—she had {& conceal her | previous day between hersolf and Doveril, it was a | duty she owed to ber own feclings as well as to emotions from her gunt, and from the domestics in ) attendance; but as. she caught herself blushing and | those of that individual to suffer no unnecessary turning pale a dozen times in a minuée, she trem- | delay to elapse ero she bad an oxplanation with bled to the lowest confines of her being at the fear | him. If all the worst should be confirmed, he of being detected. That dinner was one. of the | surcly wopld not aggravate the present ebil of his conduct towards her by boasting elsewhere that he and never was relief more gratefully welcomed than | had received such a visit: and if he were enabled when Lady Macdonald retired to: dress for the | to defend himself complgtely against the allogatious whist-party, and Florina thus found. an opportunity | of Lady Saxondale, he would rojoxe and be grateful . :* [for the step Florina was now tiking. Thus the Unlike the Hon. Miss Farctiolds, Lady Florina | young lady found more arguments to induca her to Staunton had uo consldential lady’s-maid, She {continue her way than to make her retrace her had two l@ly’s-maids: but with neither of them|steps, = $$. ® 4g: was she accustomed to converse in a manner cal-! . She ontered tho Regent’s Park, and in a short culated to lessen her own dignity in their eyes, or | timo drew near the mansion where she had passed diminish the respect which they experienced to- | thé previous evening. She stood for a few moments wards her. For, considering the sphere to which | gasingaip at the balcony whence she bad waved hor she belonged, Lady. Florina was eaguredly one of handkerchief to Deveril: and as her heart swelled the most artless, unsophisticated, and ingenuous | almost to bursting and the tears started from her croatures in existence. ‘Therefore, while she in- | eyes, she said to heraolf, ‘Is it possible that within variably treated her dependants with the utmost} fow hours efter making a dvclaration of love te affability and kindness, never even making thom | Lady Saxondale, ho could have beea guilty of such foel their menial condition, she at the same timo | a hollow hypocrisy as to seek this spot in the hope avoided anything that savoured of undue fafniliarity. | of being enabled to catch a 30 of me? Oh! Whatscever secrets her heart gaight cherish, wero | there is a strange, an unnatural"§pntradiction in all ? 8 i - Pei, “eee «i ] COMIC OOO© SS (CO)