The Mysteries of the Court of London, Vol. 7 — page 29: what you’re looking at

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

LYS, A cee | thinking of Bertraro—she could not prevent her a ~ eo eee Se, 2 oe —_ een 2 OO Gee eee oe eee ole ee eee: = —_ ew =e - en ond a nqrearenenscst onsnnea OE TEI, 18 THR MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. eee eee entertainment fe Oe I TLS —_——— respondence should be renewed. She had never ghost ascending from the tomb: and as & g 1008 goen this letter since the day it arrived—she had she is marble pale. If she caught the reflection never read 1t but once; yet she now recognised it of her own imaze io the mirror opposite, ene in a moment—and every line of its contents was Would start ia dismay; she would not believe, in imprinted on her memory ns if seared thére with ' the first shock, that it was herself she beheld red hot iron, Mer first impulse was to open and. imaged there, But she has no outward vision for read if again—but she checked herself: the very! attythisg : her eyes behold nothing in the room. thought etruck her as being an infidelity to her! All heP thoughts—all Ler eenses—all her faculties, husband. She could not prevent )erself from | ate absorbed in one idea which lies at the bottom | of her soul. \ «* mind from clinging with a soft, sad, serene affection | Ajain several minutes elapse; and then with a to his imago: she had no power over her own vo- | slow mechameal moveraent, as uf unconscious of lition, But on the other hand, she felé (iat she ‘the very impulse which she is obeying. Eliza |, had no right to du a positive deed which might re- stoops down and picks up the letter which bas suscitate all the frenzy of her re,rets fOr his los: fallen ftom ler hand—that letter which bas pro- she had no right to voluntarily seek for the evi- duced #1] which we have just been describing. dences of that Jove which heaven had refused to’ And ttow she sits down, and reads it calinly and crown with happiness. Therefore, under the ins ' dehberately. Oh, with what a calmness! It is fluonco of this most scrupulous delicacy, Eliza put! the calmness which the ocean of hyperborean the letter aside; and again cast her looks into the. regiota displays when frozen into aolid ice,—the writing desk. Calmtess of that glacial spell which can alone But, Ah! wherefore does she start? What ttanquillize the mighty waters that if the talis- writing is this which next tncets her eyo? what matic power were removed, would boil and rage. letter is that which, addressed fy her father, she in all the wikl ebullition of the tempest. ‘It is eagerly, greedily, almost frantically snatches up? the calmness of the voleano that sleeps under a She examinos the direction -she looks at the post- power supetior to its own, when its lava is hard. inarke—a faintness comes over her: the letterdrops ened into petrifaction—-but whieh, if the spell from her hand. She antiches it up agnin: and should be fromoved, and a spark should be sct to again she scrutinizes the post-marks. Thoughts the intamthable conercte, would pour fourth the of strange and wild contextare aweep through her , gush of the burning levin. mind, — tancies so poignant, no bewildering, 60; Eliza rear the letter tinechanically—deliberately | trancht wih a aelemn wonderment and at the same | —from tho first word tothe inat. * It was finshed; ) Gime a fourful suspense, that they are almost over. | and then only did she display any outward emo- | powering, <A single glance at the interior of that! tion: then only was it that a strange expression letter would clear up all doubt relieve her of all|—a sad expression indded to be scen upon the suspense: and she knows - she feele she bas the ' countenance of one so Young and beautiful —passed conviction that it will do so: but there is within slowly over her features, while simultaneously a her a shuddering awful horrer to arrive at that | glacial tremor trailed itaelf as slowly through ber certainty. Thoughts so wild) apparently so im. entire form. possible --are agitating in her brain; and yet what {| “I thank thee, O God, for one thing,” she said, aho thinks of, és possible ~for the prouf is there: | in a voice which seemed as if borne upon a breath she holds it in her band! There is within her tho | of 1e,--“and only for ore thing. The rest is all certainty that it is so; and yet she flu'tera, and | dark -—horrible ~frightful —ineredible {” trembles, aod quivers with all the doubt of agoni#-' It did not seem to strike her that she had given ing suspense, This state is intolerable. She opens utterance to something savouting vf impious blag. | the lotter - she rends— but only a tew words *and pheiny, in accepting only ons of the many diapen- | for a few moments; and she sinks down upon her satuins of Providence df which her thoughts were | knees with a iow, deep, long-drawn, yasping muan, : evidently fixed. SBut she was in that state when | the full meaning of which it would be almost im-' the hdtann soul is so chilled by despair, that the possibly tu describe, ¢ } form to whieh it belongs ia bub a breathing, ani- Mer head is bowed upon the chair from whieh , mated marble statue. she has sunk down: her face is buried in her! 8he looked over the remaining papers in the hands -and that boudoir is silent as the prava:: desk x there was atother letter, in the same hand- not even the pulsatiuns of ber ftemit nor the: writing—of & fevht date—d dmy recent dato— respirafions ef her breath fe audible, She is and this also Eiiaa read. Again wore her feelings motionloss aa the sculptuted effigy of Wuspalk : excited poignantly—horribly—agoniszingly; and tor eal -kneeiing by a tonument of a loved and lust une, some minutes she was convulsed withghe tortures Yet it is not that he is in 4 state of tuheonatious- | of anguish, while the tears raindd dowt her cheeka, neas, No: Met sotse remains—but .experkrneed She wrung her hands too—yes, ruse them bit- only as a stuhned, dismayed conaternation, There | terly, bitterly j—and it was long ere she recovered is something awful —gomething profoundly acletn | Aven the clainess of despair. Then she again ivoked —in the mental cundition of that kneeling lady. | into the desk + Wut there was nothing more to inter | She weeps not—ber bosom ts nut couvulged : Gere | aw: her. Impossible indeed would it have been tor ig nota tremor ¢hrilling throuza her iurm—not: aay other paper to produce a state of being mére de- | even the slightest creoping agitation to give sign ylorable—more deserving the whole world’s com> | of life. Yet she lives. but her’s are unatrerable, | miserstion—than those which hhd already placed a | imeffable fechngs. — pettifying spell upon the heart of the unhappy Minutes elapse while she thus rewains knoeing . Duchvas of Marchmont, She locked up all tas by the chair. ber tave buvied in her hands. .46 papers in the desk again; aud tho desk itéelt’ she vength slowly—Oh! so slowly, sbe ris rp like a , secured ina bureau of which sho kops tho kev. Fee + Ay al Ty i — ETM tame COE te ESEERS Meee COMME HOO® SS CO