The Mysteries of the Court of London, Vol. 5 — page 75: what you’re looking at

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Gein CS Oe teeth. ‘But pray whom did you expe¢ to nteet here on the present uccasion ?” | “To tell you the truth, it was Signora Vivaldi,” answered Saxondale. } “Oh, the prude!” inatantancously ried the fair one, with an indignant toss of the head. “ But I begin to understand how this mistake originated. It is doubtlesg because I also* belonging to the Opera——" - “ Just so!” exclaimed Lord Saxondale. “ And now tell me at whose feet | have the honour of knecling ?” he added, suiting .the action to the word, and dropping down upon his knees before the lady whose*hand he took and pressed to his lips. “'Ygu may know me as Emily Archer, if you like,"> was the response, acgompanied by a sweet seductive smilor “But at the Opera and to the. world I am known as Madomviselle D’Alembert.” ‘Oh! then, if [ have lost one beautiful danseuse, T have obtained anothor!” axelaimed Edmund, as he again prossed her hand to his lips: thon rising from his knees and seatfhg himself by her side, he said, “ How foolish in mne not.to have recognized you at once! I have often admired you—and be- tween ourselves considered you a much finer ar- tiste than the Signora Vivaldi———" — “ Ah! my dear Lord Saxondale,” exclaimed Miss Archer, “it is gnly joalousy, and bad taste, and envy, and want gf discernment, and all kinds of nasty feelings, that have put me second instead of first. But come, let us take some supper—and 4 glass of champagne will enliven our discourse.” Lord Saxondale andthe moretricious beauty of the Opera-ballet accordingly placed themselves at table: and by the time the young nobloman had imbibed his third glass of champagne he had not moruly forgotten the beautiful Angela altogether, but found himeelf breathing the most extravagant proposals in the ears of tho seductive Emily Archor. | OHAPTER'XV. THE GRAND ENTERTAINMENT. TuRN we now to the residence of Lady Macdonald in Cavendish Square. | It was six o'clock in the evening of the day that followed tho night of Lord Saxondale’s many ad- vontures; and Lady Florina Staunton was seat in her own private apartment adjoining her bed- chamber, Theroom wassplendidly furnished ; and the ornaments were of a character which displayed the refined taste of its presiding divinity. Several oxquisite alabaster statues were dispersed about— there were vases filled with flowers which exhaled. a delicions perfume—and gu a aide table were scat- tered drawing-materlals, with a fow exquisite spe- cimens of-the att in. water-coldur, = Florina was dressed for a party: Her bd autiful hair was arranged in ringlets, and ornanientéd with pearls anda single camelia that seemed typical of her own virgin purity. She was seated at a table, whereon lay a bookand a letger, both of which she had been reading, The former was a volume of Scott's Poems, of which she was a-greatadmiret : the letter was one that had been received by her eunt that same afternoon from Mr. Gunthorpe, and which had been given to our fair heroine ¢) read. ‘% THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. But at the moment when we, thus afford the reader & glimpse into that splendidly furnished apartment, Lady Florina was neitber reading book nor lettur, but was plunged into a deap reverie. Exquisitely beautiful did she seam she sat, staqie-like, in her rich dress and with her looks bent peneively down wards,—so exquisitely beau- tiful indeed, that it appeared. a sin to allow the heart of so fair a creature to experionca the slizht- est souroe:of Voxation or sorrow! And yet sorrow did lurk*in that gentle bofom‘of hers: for the young lady could nof blind herself to tho circum-, stance that in béing regarded ag the future wife of Lord Saxondale, she was to be sacrificed to the wretched conventionalisms of high life, and that her hand was to be bestowed upon ono whom she could not possibly love and who even inspired her with aversion and disgust. But, there was another circumstance to which Florina could not close her convictions: and thia was, that if she did not love “ Lord Shxondale she nevertholess loved another ! _ “Yes,” she thought to herself in the depth of that reverie in wifich wo find her pluvgad, ' he is ono of nature's true aristocracy and needs no fac- titious ornament of rank flor accidental advantage _of fortune to render him truly estimable. I feel that I Jove fim! I can no longer shut out this troth from my mind. .Bytin thus admitting it unto myself, is it not the same as acknowledging ‘py own unbappiness? Alas, yes! for itis in vain that I love him——I never can be his. Uh! that he loves me in return, I know—lI am con- vinced! Yes, William Deveril loves mo !"— and as she thus spoke his name oven to horself, she suddenly started ag if with tho conscious- ness of some guilty thought or deed. “ And now,” she continued, in her silent reverie, “I am_ decked to go forth {nto the brilliant saloons of fashion—to smile with my lips while my heart is weeping—to look happy in my face while my my soul is dark with sorrow !” ae At this momenta door opened at the extremity of Lady Florine’s apartment; and galvanized as it were from her deep absorbing -reverie, she atarted and Jooked round, as if fearful lest tho person now entering, whoever it were, might read in her features the thoughts that had beon agi- tating in her mind, _— , “ Ah, my dearaunt!” she exclaimed, rising from herohair: “is the carriage at the door ?? — \ Yos, Flo dear,” responded Lady Macdonald — anelderly woman, superbly drogsed, but theartifices of whose toilet could not conceal and scarcely evon mitigate the ravages of time upon a heauty:that in hor youngér days bad been of'no common order. “Jt is half-past six—Lady Saxotidale dines at seven—aud you know that‘she iaso particular, she isalwdysa punctual.” - - ¢ “Tamreadf, aunt,” replied Florina, ‘‘ Bat surely it will not take half-an-hour,” she added, smiling. “to reach Park Lane ?—ani F know that you do not like to be there much ‘before the time.” —. «Drue,” observed Lady Macdonald; -“:we will wait ive minutes. Have you reed Mr, Gunthorpe's letter which I sent ipto you just now 2” ¢ “I have read it with some degree of astonish- ment,” answered Florina. “ The othernight, when - he firat introduced himeelf to me and Harold at the Opera, he said that he should be delighted to pay you a-Visit ; and I assured him that you would be well pleagsd toshow him every attention. And @ , ECOMRniclacae SS (CO)