The Mysteries of the Court of London, Vol. 7 — page 286: what you’re looking at

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

a Ce bee wee wee ee Wee eee ee eee ee) —_ a= - Ep wrerteet inet 9 tae. TIE MYSTERIFS OF THE COURT. - B76 marriage with my oouain!” he exclaimed, clutching | “And why that fraud?” asked the young man, with avidity at the thought. !atill profoundly agitated, vs “Jsabella is no more your cousin, Adolphus?’ | “1 have ulroady told you that I was abtuptl responded the old nobleman, “ than’ IT am your} called away trom England when my’ child wa father——and 1 am swt!’ ho added emphati-| three daya old. A month afterwards that chif cally. died. There were circumstances altending it Adolphus raised bis hands to his throbbing brows | birth—circumstancos x0 painful to ita mother, ‘a6 as if tu steady his wildly asitated thoughts: his {to preclude the idea that she could ever Agao train seemed to whirl in confusion. Could it| hope to becomo a parent. Sho dreaded leat the possibly be true? Was ho an unwilling im-/ severance of the tie which that child's exiatenco ovat? had he Jived thus long an animated lie | constituted betwixt bersolf and mo should alienate without knowing it? had ho for twenty-four years | my beart from her, and make me look ppon her passed in the world as a breathing falsehood, }even with aversion as a wife who voald give po thongh utterly cuiltless of wanton deceit? Oh, if | heir to the haughty name of Gaseclles. Sho kuew ib wero so, Le felt as if he could not survive it— | morcover that if anything happened to me, tho ’twere a blow too terrible to bear! estates would devolve upon my ajater —Jaabelta’s The old Earl had no guch depth of fooling ; and | mother,—and that she hersolf Yeay wife, J mean) though he was to a certain degree excited and dis- | would bave to retire upon a small jointure, almost tres od, yet it was only to a degree, aud not vearly oxcluded aa it were from that family of whieh it to the same extent as the uahappy —the miserable | was her pride to be one of the heads All these - the soul-erushed Adolyhua, Yet allin a moment | reasons induced her to practiap the chent which there sprang up in the young man’s heart a sonse | have described. Opportumtica were favourable of consulation—yer, consolation in the midst of | C was absent, with a certuinty of remaining Away, such overwhelming revelations as these. If he for yet some months—she bad a surgeon and a were not the Earl's son, his crime in reapect to her | nurso accessible to bribery-—-femalg dependauts Who: he had jutherto loohud upon as his wother- who were devoted to her -and Thad loft her with in-law beeame in & mowent many, many shades the illimitable command of funds, You underaland lchter tu contemplate, dark tuvuch its bue still | the reat-—I need say no more.” remiuned. “Vou thom is something more for you to tell © Tell me how ll this happened !—cxplain it!” | me!? answered Adolphus: then, after a pause, he he suid, with quick and exeited utterance: “for | said —and the words appeared to half choke him, heaven’s snko keep me not another moment in | —% Whose son am | P' } Busponse 1? “A poor familys who resided in sane midland * Tisten then,” said the Earl, speaking with Jess | county which my wife traversed on hor way to her silliness and flppancy than was hiv wont. “It [frends in the north. This family, being heavily was at Bloomficld that I was residiag with my | bribed, departed at once for Ameriqg, - such jimme- first wife when a eon and heir was born twenty- | diate removal toa forcign chino being the paras four ycurs and a half ago. A few days after that | mount condition of the compact. ‘Bpes tava never huth, amportaut business hurried me away to the | since been beard of: but :till, as J just ae suid, t fopunents and the serious embarrassinents in| there is always the possibility, if mot the proda- LB wine’ a near elation, who is long since dead, had | bility of some of thon turning up-—— invevvod himself nt Vienna, detained me there for! “And the name of thiy family P” enid Adolphus, A po.od of four months. When 2 raturned to | quickly. Lingiand my wife was in @ northern county, ona} “1 du not know it,” roplicd the Earl: “ang I wisit to some relations there: and andecd, asletters | ean give the most satisfactory reagon ip the world had presiously inturmmed me, I was assured that it | -- whieh «that To onesey huewit. Evon if tho vas for the snake of her health that she hud re- | late Cou, oss intended to mention it, she did not moved thither. 1 rejomed her: the coud whom {—~w. hich s just the same tlyog as if she bad nevog ashe vepresented to me as tov son, wad healthy and | meant tuetell me at all.” thisiny., Years passed on— aud you know with The old nobleman, having spoken in a serioug What kindness you were treated by her who passed | and deiiberate manner for some titse, was now as your mother, and indeed from whose bosom‘) mlapsing iuto bis wouted frivolity,— which only you were nourished in your infancy. You are( served to aggravate the bitterness of fcolings ex. aware likewise that she was of the Catholte yer. | perienced by the wretehed Adolphys, Whe latter suasivn and that she was attends | by a priest in| began to pace the brary im an agitated manner; hey last hours, when a mortal alluess overtook her | and vainly did ho essay to collect his thouplita bencath this roof. To that priest sie confessed ; sufficiently for cali deliberation. Jt wasp fearful everything ibut he dared not give her absolution | blow which had struck him; and theygh the trutn unless ane revealed to me the fraud winch had! bad been revealed Klowly by his putative Lathe, § *been perpetrated.” [the effect was nevertheless as if it had smitten we 9 - Gb hee ee — — 5 Glee cee ew ee ewe: ee -ws2e eo Sr veer Ke ve ere = nd Se ee me . “Gu on,” groaned Adolphus in a half-sufling ; him with a most cruel abruptness. As we haye voice. already suid, the only glimmer of light which peno- “The revelation was made accordingly,” con- | trated into the darknoss of his’ mind, arose from tinued the Earl: “but I swore te the Counteas— j the fact that Jas amour with Ethel had ceased to vour mother of adoption—that L woul! continue | wear an inveafucus aspect. But on the other tu treat you as m§ gon and never cxpose the fraud | hand, in what a position stood feP At any mo- te the world. She died with a conscience much | ment an accident might unmask him: some tin. feheven she died blessing me,” aided the old | foreseen circumstance wight ewldenly transpire to nobleman, now displaying deeper feeling than | prove to the whole world that instend of befng tie Adolphus had ever betore seen rim exhibit. rightful heir to the Earldum aud estates of Las ECONNIC I OOO© —— tee ae = 2 &-m eke Wiper es a= at te os —-—we p sas whe Ae a Se el SS CO