The Mysteries of the Court of London, Vol. 5 — page 170: what you’re looking at

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a et eee THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. 157 to of costly gifts for tho designing an and fascinating a Qa 6 rw eas AD aoe guilt beneath the mask of hypocrisy. Even the eomparatively pure mind of Constance caught the poisonus infection from the samic source; and in the space of a brief half-hour those: ‘two: sistets had become years older in the depravitich of the imagination. Oh, wretched wretched Lady Sasgudale if you’ eould only have known how muoh of the evil ssed which is naturally ifbplanted ih frail human nature’! had been all on @ sudden made,to shoot forth and germinate wile fearful rapidity, even almost to the bearing of its kindred fruits, in the bosoms of your daughters, you would have shrunk appalled from the startling fact that it was your doing. For, Oh { the Medusa-head of a mother’s bad example will para- lyse and turn to rigid stone all the lively virtues and healthy qualities of hor a Waa wate thee, Lady Saxondalo! — 7 * e CHAPTER XxxIvV. THR MIEROB- 2 Anvor two hours later in the day, Jufjana Fare- ficld, dreased for dinner in @ costume that set off her hucly developed charme to the utmost advantage, wis half f reclining upon a sofa in one of the drawing® rooms, ‘and whiling away the time with a volume of the last new novel. Little however of its contents did the lady’s memory retain: for though she was reading of love thero, she was thinking of love at the same time apart from the topic of the book. Tor ideas seemed to flowin two distinct channels,— one following the course df tho glowing descriptions of love as dressed up by the novelist—the other pur- suing tho raptures and blandishinenta of love as she herself felt and understood them. estailture was @ heightened colour upon hr checke— a dewy moisture upon her rich red lips —a melting Janguor in her fine dark cyes~—a languor the sen- suousnoss of which was deepened by the half-closing of the lids, as if those eyes, faithfullyweflecting the condition of the mind, were weighed down by the delicious thoughts that rested on her soul within. For the soul itself fects a kind of pleasurable op- prossivences and the weight of a softly sinsuous lan- guor when the imaginstion gives way to: the rapt dresmings of love—even.as the bee, aweets from ev flower, is oppressed by the burden of the delicious ‘wherqwith it ie Iaden,—or as the breeses of an oriental clime become heavy with the rich perfumes and odours which they have seou- feeling of which sips | ner’ her Wdyship e Emily Archer. Juliana tharefore was alone i in the drawing-roorr between five and six o'clock on that day of which we are writing; ; and what with the inspirations ot thé novel she was reading, the glowing charactor of hér (ghta, and the influonce,of those rove- lations which had oome to her ears in respoct to her mother, it'was 0 wonder if sha should at length fall into the following train of reflections :— . © Agsuredly I should become the laughing-stock of the whole world,” she said to herself, as sho laid aside her book, “if I were to run away With Frank Paton and marry him. Yes, for no matter what the socret of his birth may really be, he is but a page after all; and if I wait till that mystery is cleared up with tho hope that he may eventually prove to be the son of distinguished persons, T may wait long enough. Besides, how is it possiblo to wait? I feel’ that this passion is devouring mo ~———Those, By the, bye, are the very words which I have just now: read in the novel! How truly ‘some authors do depict our feelings! It was all very well for me to declare to Constance yesterday that I gloried in this love of mine, and that I should® feel proud in becoming the wif® SragpieP ton. ,Yes—but then I did not choos b owledye “even to myself that there was any shame attached to this love—any reason to blush for it! It was an attempt to blazon forth something that nevertheless eat upon tha heart like a remorse. Whoreforo should I not imitate my mother’s example? Sho would not marry William Deveril—bat sho——” And then Juliana, not yet thoroughly depraved, checked the thought to which she was 6 un- consciously giving expression in her musings; and returning to her book, she endeavoured to evade at least that portion of the ideas which had stolen upon her. But it was in vain: the idea was there—the seed had dropped upon a soil by no means unpre- pared to receive it-—and although it might be covered tip for a moment, it was nevertheless certain to take root—indeed all the more certain on that very ac- ‘count. Presently the door opened, and Lady Saxendale entered the apartment. Juliana just lifted her dyes above her book to seo who it was, and then went on reading without saying &- word. In the same man ‘towards the- sofa to sve who »was half. voolining there; and likewise without ing « word, ale turned to the further cx- t and mistrust on the mulated while they. wandered. eningly over ‘the of to esis in te ¢ elder daughter. Lady Saxon- brightest and fairest Gowers of the stance ‘her own chamber,. to a-bill& which she had rece "a the a do Villebelle, through ‘the agency. Rithh Mary-Anne, Lady Saxondale was llsewise’ in het own room, pondering upon lier unpleasant, with Mr. Gunthorpe, end revolvipg & the and desperate plans in her mixid/ fo dale knew Julinna was aloneat the time in that room, Con: | ben loeb 3 aay st ond bal her guilly conscivnce thaé the seal truth of tho | eameeeen ates euspocted-wfor she was very far from. entertaining an idea hew cocplotoly 3¢ was known.: On the other band Juliana, boing ag yet interview:| young in: the. ways of duplicity and deceit, was thousand wild - pg aay het mother's eagle gince shveld 7 walad, ‘her conscience sugges fears than before. Thus was it that mis- rea ofthe pens oben Thare vial ras ! concsrning Deveril had not ® | hour or: two just to see if there were ax } suspicion subsisted between the patricias him, hehad gone back to the villa fn the Beven Sisters’ ) lady and her’ daughter. Road, laden with new presents and a fresh supply : Lady 8 Sas ondale retired, we said, to the farther | COMIC SOOKS.COM