The Mysteries of the Court of London, Vol. 5 — page 163: what you’re looking at

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

ae usenet eseaecieeeee ores een eee ON 150 THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. Dr. Ferney, with a glow of ploasure upon his counte- | it, you will pass the matter over in silence—you nance. will take no step that shall lead to farther inves- . “Ihave preserved them—I have amused myself | tigations? ‘Will you promis me this, doctor p” en several occasions with the experiments themselves | asked the lady. —ani I can assure you,’ added thé lady, witha} ‘“I¢will—mest faithfully and most readily,” re- swect smile, “ that I have fultilled the instructions plied the physician, “Is thig all that you require? with a success that you yourself, ay my preceptor tu) is this all that I can do?” the science, would have viewed with satisfaction. | “I have nothifig more to ask,” rejoined the lady. Dv you remembor that one of those receipts was far | “ And now, Dr. Ferney,” sho said, rising from her ® peculiar compound fluid which yourself had just | scat, “I must take my leave. But ono word!” she succeeded in discovering ?” exclaimed, as a sudden thought struck her. “ If “ Yes—and the discovery of which Itebig has phrchance,” she continued, in that winning way just claimed as his own,” added Dr. Forney. ‘But | which women know so well how to adopt towards no maticr—tho credit was mine, if any there were. | those over whose hearts their charms havo powcr, You mean chloroform fF’ “should we ever meet in the great world, it must “The same,” answered the lady. “Well, I now ; be as simple acquaintances—almost as strangers ; come tu the object of my present visit. A bottle of | and not a word from your lipsgvill suffer others to this subtlo fluid has-boon stolen from me: it: has! know undor what ciasumstances wo met long years fallon into the hands of persons whose “csperate : on ene less for what purpose!” characters I have too mych reason to know; aid | ave £ not already told you,” asked the ductor, dread lest the most fearful usos should bo made of | ina mildly and maurnfully reproachtul vuice, “ that it. ‘Therefore have I Jost no time in‘cuming to make ; 1 would sooner die than do you an injury. *Relativo you acquainted with this circumstance.¢ For to tell | to that purpose of which You speak, I have so for you the truth, I feared that if such evil uses as [ | buried it in oblivion that it remains entombed at und icipate should be made of the fluid, and that you ; the bottom of my soul. Did the Inquisition exist heard of any such cagp. youmight at uncv, ou theim- | now, and rear its hydra-head armed with ull its pulse of tho mo , declare that sume years back | terrors in the very heart of England, not cven all you had communicated the secret toa lady, and tha tortures of the rack should drag forth that (hat from her only could the dangerous climination secret fromme. It is your’s—not mine.” * have been procured. Under such circumstances [| “Generous man that you are! accept my warmest, might bocome seriously compromised—tfor careless- | sincerest, most heartfelt thanks! And think not ness, at tho least-———for frem: whdc you told me ; that though nineteon yeara have elapsed since last nt the timo I thought it very improbable you would { we met, I have been unmindful of your welfare. [ ever communicate the secret to another——” have watched you from adistance—I have seen you “Ah! I recollect,” cxclaimed: Dr. Forney, “I | rise to eminenvo—and I Bave been rejoiced. If 1 said that inasmuch as you had taken a0 deep an did nob send you my cangratulations, it was bo- interost in that discovery, it should remain sacred | causo-——But no matter! I congratulate you now ou your account; so that I might have tho satis- | —and with a fervid sincerity.” taction of thinking tu myself that there was atleast } “ But you Will not leave me thus abruptly P” Said one being in the world whose smile of approval had ; the physician. “ You, who were iutercsted in my wlactdened mo in my scientific pursuits.” little laboratory at Islington, will surely condescend “It was because you Spoke thus,” rejoined the | to cast a look within the walls of the larger ono Indy, “and because I read at tha time the gencrosity | which [ posscay in Condujt Street? And you re- and sincerity of your character, that I felt assured ; member too, that nucleus. of a musewn which | thoy were not idle words you had uttered. ‘There- ‘had formed, also in Islington—a‘amall closet con- fore, when the phia] of fluid was purloined from me ' ' taining a few curiosities, with difficulty purchased last’ night, I eaid to nyself, ‘If it should really be | by the hard ‘savings of those times? Well, the the case that to me only in the world has Dr. Ferney | little nucleus:in the small closet has grown and entrusted his secret, I now sfand a twofolft risk. expanded into a large collection, filling a suite of In the first place, should an evil uso be made of the | four chambers within these walls.” fluid by the hands into which it has fallon, and if} 4 Yes—- will with pleaspre visit your laboratory he comes *to hear qf it, he ‘may proclain to the {and your museum,” returned the lady, who was werll that from 6 certain lady could the subtle | evidently anxious +o render herself agroeable to the jsssenco alone have been obtained. Or else, in the ; physician, as an.additionel inducemont for him to socend place, he -will perhaps ascribe ditect to me | keep inviolable ‘the several secrets with which he whatsoever orimie may be perpetrated ; and it would | appeared to be entrusted. be terrible to suffer thus*in the. eatimation of any | ‘Come then,” said Ferney: and Aaking’s lamp one.’-—These were the terms in which I reasoned to | off his reading -desk, hs led the way from the myself; and therefore, in anticipation of whatedevar, study... may ensue froni.the:logs of my phial of chlovofirm, | orang a. landing ‘place, the physician guided. I rosolved upon paying you this visit.” the lady along a passsge to a door which he threw “TI am glad-—I am rejoiced,” replied tho doctor, ; and she soon ‘herself in the laboratory. “that the incKjent has ovourred, simeo it has pro- a teed not pause describe in detail the appear- cured me the Happiness of your presence.‘ But tof th plato: the ime of our readers what would you have me do? in what way can T | can eakily depict the shelves covered with jars and assist you? Speak—you can command we in all . | botiles duly labelled with the chemical hieroglyphios a, | —the furnace in one carner-the alembics, retorts, an Should you hear of any case in which tho vil- ‘ and uther impléments which lay scattered about— : ine who have stolen the fluid, make an evil use of | the book-case con several curious volumes— i eee ecomniclacclks (CO)