The Mysteries of the Court of London, Vol. 7 — page 387: what you’re looking at

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

Ge 2, 376 THD WYSTERIES OF THE COURT. c=.» ™ vc = vee wen OS ———- Site oe UG OP een -h earnestly upon her sister's eountediance, as if seok- , struck her that it was useless as well. as impolitic ing for tlie assurance thet a real affectionate sin-|te argue upon the point; inasmuch as she was cerity characterised all that she had just said ; and | secretly resolved in her own mind never to wed Mrs. Oxenden could scarcely prevent her looks | Sir John Steward—and inasmuch too as against from quailing beneath that gase of artless inno- | ber fluttering heart rested the billet which had cence. that day brought assurances of love, of succour “Yes, my dear sister,” resumed the wily woman, | and of hope. taking Laura's hand and pressing it between both| “I see my dear girl,” continued Mrs. Oxenden, her own as if with the tendorest cordiality, “I am | who did not rightly comprehend what was passing indeed studying your best interests in everything | in her sister's mind, “that yoy are doing your that I suggest or propose. Suffer me—for the, best to exercise a becoming control over your feel- last time, I nope—to reason with you a little upon | ings-—-and that when they threaten to get the certain points, and thereby aid you in strengthening | better of you, you magnanimously check yourself your nund and assisting you onward in that better | I am sure that this reiteration of all I have pre- course of feelings which you have for the last few | viously told you, has its uses and ite advantages: hours displayed. You know, Laura, that Mr. Oxen- | and therefore—for the last time, I hope, as I just dens means are limited—that it isa Government! now said—I will recapitulate those reasonings pension which he enjoys—and that it will die with | which I have adopted towards you before. You hima. Therefore at his deatk—-which according to ! are aware that Sir John Steward sent for me from all natural probabilities will take place long before | Brighton, declaring in his letter that he hada | my own—TI shall be left with such small income | most important commutication to niake to me; , as will arise from my husband's present savings | thie communication was to the effect that as the | aud from an insurance on his life. Hitherto, my | conduct of his nephew had been most unduteous | dear sister, I have been enabled to support you in | in many respects-——” | comfort if not in affluence; and upon this ground| “Do not vilify Edgar Beverley!” interrupted ° alone I might claim some right to your dutiful | Laura, unable to restrain herself when aspersiung | obvdience, as if I were your mother. But let us| were thrgwn out against her lover. : view the matter ina difforent light. Youare now| ‘Well, Laura,” continued Mrs. Oxenden, “I | of an age when you ought to think gf settling in| will speak in terms as delicate as possible. Put- the world. If Mr. Oxenden were to die soon—| ting all Sir John Steward’s reasons out of the before you were thus settled—that income which | question, the substantive fact remains that he de- would be a bare maintenance for me, would cun- | termined to avail himself uf the recently discoverail stitute absolute poverty for yourself and me; and | document to break off the entail and dispose of his without the means of going into socioty, how could | propsrty—which is immense—according to his own; you hope to form an eligible alliance ——” goudwill and pleasure. It is his purpose to make A burning blush oversproad the countenance of | such a settloment that will leave Mr. Boverley in the young maiden,as she said with more firm- — of the two hundred pounds which have ness than her timid nature was wont to allow her! hitherto been granted to him as an allowance. 1t to display towarde hor sister, “ You know that my | is true that at his death Mr. Beverley may, under heart is already engaged: think yon therefore | certain circumstances, aucceed to the title: but that I can possibly listen with a very ploasant | even if it should be so, what is a title without fecling to this language of yours, in which you| wealth adequate to its support? A mere encum- speak of eligible alliances as if they wero such | brance! To what, then, is Edgar Beverley re- mere worldly matters-——-” ducedP To the condition of a poor subaltern, “ And qv they are!” interrupted Mrs. Oxenden | with acouple of hundred a year besides his pay. vehemently: fur she in a moment saw the neces- | Would you throw yourself into his arms, when on sity of re-asserting her empire over her delicate. } the other hand you may become the bride or a minded sister. “I know full well to what you} man who is enurmously rich, and whose rank will allude—you would speak of Edgar Beverley: but | be reflected on yourself?” have [ not already told you that according to} Laura was again on the point of giving a hasty some long-lost document which has recently cume | and even indignant answer to these cold-blooded to light, and the existence of which was pre-| mercenary calculations of her gister; when she viously unknown or forgotten, Sir John Stewafd| was once more struck by the inutility of the is cuabled to cut off the ontail of his estates and | course, as well as by the impolicy of saying aught tu"bequeath them to whomeoever he may choose? | that could possibly excite a suspicion in Mrs. Have I not likewise informed you over and over | Oxenden's mind. aguin that his solicitor is already taking the necus- | ‘As yet Mr. Beverley,” continued the latter sary stepa tor this purpose, and that he will most | lady, who, with all her penetration and sunning, probably he here the day after to-morrow with the | could not fathom what was really passing in her tmarriage-scttlements completed ——-and likewise,” | sister’a mind, and who therefore believed that her adied Mrs. Oxenden impressively, “with the | own arguments were making the wished-for im- draught of Sir John Stewurd’s will—that will by | pression—“ as yet Mr. Beverley is in total ignor- virtue of which you are at his death to inherit the | ance of the existence of that document which great bulk of his Wealth,—a comparatively smali | enables his uncle to disinherit him.” He clings tc |. sum being bequeathed to me, and which J am sure | the belief—as indeed be himself assured me at my own sister will not grudge me?” =“ Brighton not long since—that he is the heir pree “Ok, if you kuew how painful it isto me,” cried | sumptive to Sir John’s estates, which he supposes ‘ Laura, with a visible shudder, “to hear you thus | to be inalienable so far as tho rigour of the entail speculating upon death-———” is concerned. But he will find himself mistaken, But thea abe stopped suddenly short, as the idea { Sir John does not however wish that the intelli- ome = = = Ee, i IS aia es A =f Gee Ee ee OE if anh, ope 4 Pipe AS ED ema om Vemms 4 ~ pe ee ep weal, > 4 ees genet — eb ere EE 6. Cee, Jee bee EEE Quiz eh wb > GOnMGOOOKS