The Mysteries of the Court of London, Vol. 7 — page 279: what you’re looking at

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

ee Se ee eee OE Qe ewe ewe ee Qe ee Om seer ree wiewt ee ~ — | | _—- mw eee A I a a eg A Si ee ree I a en SE ES A RP aaa, Se Some ee ee ee eee —_ Be mee Ss - - = a nn ee 2 a ee 268 her ladyship. Isabella, on the vther hand, was too artless and innocent to enterthin tho idea of any ulterior purpose; and leaning upon her cousin’s arm, she walked by his side in ailence, occupied with her own melancholy reflections, To his other arm the Countess clung; and ay the night was clear and beautiful, she and her lover were now enabled to exchange glances of deep and oarnest tenderness. lt becomes necessary to explain that in one of the angles of tho walls enclosing the spacious garden-grounds, there was a small private door, but which waa seldom or never used. An avenue of evorgreens led from this door towards the con- gervatorioa at the further extremity of the garden ; and it was in this avenue that Osmond was now weiking with the two ladies. At first there was little conversation: for Isabella was altogether silent —while Adolphus and Ethel were too much pra(ilied with the opportunity of thus stealthily bestowing @ tonder pressure of the hand, or of exchanging a fond look when the starlight pene- trated amidat the trees and flooded their path with its argentine lustre, to give utterance to remarks on purely indifferent subjects: for on such subjects alone could they converse in the presence of Isabella, who was altogether uneuspicious of their guilty love. “You are pensive, my sweet ccusin?” aaid Adolphus, at length breaking a long silence, and now addressing himself to Isabella. “ The Coun- teas and I are not so dull,” he continued in a good- buwoured strain, “as to be unable to comprehend what oceupies your thoughts. We both feel for you, wy dear cousin ™ “‘Iuabella has already more than once received the assurance of my sympathy,” romarked the Countoas. “ But we should offer her more than sympathy,” quickly exclaimed Lord Osmond. “There could be no barin in assisting the progress of this httle love-affuir, which experiences distavour only on the part of one: for really Christian Asbton is an ad- mirable young man You are weeping, dear Isabella !” “The conversation gives her pag,” said the Countess, in a tone of tonderest sympathy. “Not fur worlds would I wilfully give you pain, uy dear cousin,” resunied Adolphus. “On tho contrary!— you shell ece whether I have not studied to do something to afford you pleasure.” ‘What mean you?” inquired the agitated, the astonished, and the bewildered girl, her heart flut tung with suspense. “{ mean, my dear cousin, that bere is some one whom you may perhaps be glad to meot !” These last words were spoken just as the hitle party reached the end of the avenue where the private door stood; and at the same, moment a key was heard to turn in the lock of that door It opened —and a faint ery of mingled surprise and dehyht burst from Isabella’s lips, aa she bebeld Christian Ashton. “ We will leave you together for half-an-hour,”’ pail Lord Osmond: and he burried the Cyuuntess awny from the epot. Isubella, well nigh overcome by her feelings, he Bunk half-faiating into Obristiun’s* arms: strained her to his breast, breathing the tenderest «= PT MT al og Oi a ee a THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. plained to her how he had earnestly longed for one parting interview—how Lord Osmond had kindly vélunteered to procure it—and how a note en. closing a key of the gate, and instructing him in what manner to proceed, had been left a few minutes back at his lodgings. Who the peraon was that left it, Christian did not know: but we need hardly inform the reader it was the valet Makepeace. And were not the lovers happy’ and did they not fvel themselves supremely blest? Was it likely that they should yield to timid eappreben- sions, and on that account cut short the pure pleasure—the chaste luxury—of this interview P Or need we say that the vows of eternal love which the enraptured youth sought from the lips of the tender maiden, were murmuringly whis- pered—that those vows were reciprocated —and that they were ratified with the purest and holiest kisses P They walked together in that shady avenue for nearly an -hour,—Adolphus and Ethel having thus well nigh doubled the interval to which the young nubleman had in the first instance limited the mecting; and during this space everything wag furgotten by tho youthful pair except the hap- pineas of being thus together. So rapidly slipped away the time, that when Adolphus and Kthel again joined them, it seemed as if tho interview had lasted but for five minutes instead of fitty. It was at the extremity of the avenue winch was nearest to the conservatories that the youthtul lovers were thus rejoined by Lord Osmond and the Countess of Lascelles; and 1t was here that they now separated. Isabella, again taking her cousin's arm, accompanied him and the Countess back to the mansion in one direction—while our young hero, hastily threading his way along the shady avenue, regained the garden-gate, whence he issued,—locking it again and taking the key with him. Had not his thoughts been entirely wrapped up in the ecstatic luxury of feeling which this in- terview had left behind it, he would most probably have been struck by a certain strange rustling amidst the adjacent evergreens:—but as i. bap- pened, he heard it not. Meanwhile the Earl of Lascelles had retired to the library to make notes of whatsoever perilous escapes or marvellous adventures he could possbly concoct, and which were worthy in those celebrated memoirs thaf”were to throw Baron Munchausen into the shade. He however found his imagination more cloudy than he had expected: he rang for wine—but fresh potations appeared only to increase his dullness, instead of giving a spur to his inventive ingenuity. Thus an hour elapsed; and he had only got so far as to place himeelf between the fore-paws of a huge Atrican hon, without being enabled to resulve upon the special means of his own extrication and his formidable adversary’s defeat. tle sate back in his chair, thinking: but gradually with his tacditations there became mingled an under- current of thoughts which presently absorbed the vthers. This ramble in the garden assumed a suspicious aspee$ to hie mind. He did not know what it could possibly mean; and yet he could nut help thinking it meant something more than a mere strull for the purpose of courting the evening and most endearing words in her var, He ex-| breeze. Without entering into details in respect (C Incorporation . NOG ee re ee a a cS a PRE TS, Re | — ee 2 a a I STE A pS TT a RAR TE gE ES TTT a i a a ey 4 SS