The Mysteries of the Court of London, Vol. 7 — page 72: what you’re looking at

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

THR MYSTERIES OF ©HE court. . your punishment. If in addition to’ file th CHAPTER XI ment, you require any other, , ahall receive it at my hands. my one,” CHRISTINA. ° “Very good,” responded the other, withemkeyee ’ glancing at the card which Octavian handedbiet ‘| rx weeks had elapsed since the bridel ceremony: ! “You shall hear from me!’—and with See ¢ wae now the middle of October—and the ' words, he walked hestily away, brushing ¢aae: ; young couple, having returned to London, took dust from the sleeve of his coat. RA | atts - . possesgion of a house in Regent's Park, on the! Let us pause for a few minutes to describ ie side exactly facing the abode of Mr. Armytage. ' young female whom Meredith had thus deliv Zoe naturallgjejshed to be near her father, whom from the stranger's audacious conduct, yl - she might thus see daily—or at least very often; | whom he recognised the beauteous unknown Whe 1 and Lord Octavian Meredith, having no particular : has been before alluded to. Beautiful she indesf, |’ " choice as to the place of his residence, cheerfully | was, as the reader has been prepared to leayms' ' carried out the wishes of his beauteous bride. | youthful too—for she did not appear to be mom | , During thg honeymoon he had found no reason to | them sixteen or seventeen years of age. Thotgh: ‘if | be disappoinfed in the estimate which he had pre- | slender in figure, the symmetry of her proportidns- } viously formed of Zoe’s intellect, temper, and dis- | constituted a rare model of developing oharaw, position. All the excellent traits of her mind— | Her countenance was pale—but it was the paloness :}. and she had no bad ones—developed themselves in | of beauty and of health: not the dull white | a manner full well calculated to rivet her husband's | ness of the skin, but the purest complexién with 4. affections, if they were susceptible of such adhesion | vital animation upon it. Her eyes were large and. unto her. She was all gentleness and amiability, | dark: their naturally lustrous beaming was eonie* | *candour and truthfulness, ingenuousness and inno- | what subdued by an innate modest bashfulneis, cence. Her love, being crowned by happiness, | and partially veiled by the long ebon laslies that appeared to render her beauty more angelically | fringed them. Her hair was of the very darkest fascinating—if indeed there had been any réom , shade—nof that of dull lustreless jet; but that of for such enhancement of her charms. In short, , the shining glossiness of the raven’s plumage. It Lord Octavian Meredith had every reason to be | was not merely luxuriant, but of i softness : the happiest and most contented of men. and it fell not in ringlets, but in more massive One afternoon, a few-days after the return of | tresses on either side of her beautiful countenanoe. the young couple from the watering-place, Lord | The rosy hue of the lips set off teeth of a daszling Octavian had occasion to call upon Mr. Armytage | polish and faultlessly even. When beheld in her on some little busineas connected with the settle- | quiet moments—for she was now naturally excited ‘| ment of Zoe’s dowry. We should observe that | by the ecene which we have just desoribed—there during the interval since the marriage, Mr. Ar-| was a stamp of so much guileless truthfulness and mytege had entirely recovered from his attack of | virginal innocence about her, that it wae a wonder gout, and had become as bustling and active as | even the most daring libertine could for a single ever. The business between himeelf and his son- | instant have been so thoroughly mistaken in her in‘law was speedily concluded ; and Octavian tovuk | character and disposition ae to suppose that abe his leave, to retrace his way on foot across the | would listen to his dOvertures. Still speaking of her Park to his own dwelling. He was walking along | in her tranquil momenta, we may add that there that road which, diverging from the main one near | was a slight settled shade of melancholy—or per- the Colosseum, leads to the inner circle, when his | haps rather of pensiveness, on her beautiful coun- attention was suddenly drawn to a scene that was | tenance: yet this, in no way detracting from the taking place a little way ahead. A gentleman, | charms which invested her, only perbaps undefin- having caught the hand of a young female gen- | ably -nhanced them. We have already said that teelly but simply dressed, was endeavouring to | she was plainly but neatly dressed; and there was retain it against her will—and was doubtless ad-|a natural grace in every movement and in every dressing her in a style of language which excited | gesture of this sweet girl. Her eyes, though hey virtuous indignation; for as she struggled to | bfight, had none uf passion’s fire in them: on the release her hand from his grasp, ber ejaculations | contrary, there was something of dove-like mild- of angered remonstrance reached Octavian’s ehr. | ness in her looks, if such an expression can be But, Ah! that figure—he recognised it in @mo- | applied to the darkest eyes as well aa to those of ment!--and darting forward, reached the spot| blue. The outline of her countenance was purely awift as an arrow shot from a bow. The gentle. | Grecian: and the upper lip had that short rich man—a gentleman in name only, but not in cén- | curl which with some women is the type of high duct—was &t once stricken to the ground by the | birth—with others an evidence of that instinctive chivalrong and indignant Meredith: for it is only | feminine dignity which disdains falsehood and is fair to observe that if the young person who was | incapable of guile. the object of the genteel ruffian’s outrage, had been Such was the interesting creature with whom an ater stranger to him, he would have acted in | Lord Octavian Meredith now suddenly found him- precisely the same manner. self alone. At the instant that be had rusbed up to . The woe fanh individual started up from the | the spot, her countenance was crimsoned with ine d in a furidus rage,—exclaiming, “ By heaven, | dignation and @ sense of outraged virtues the next | gir! whoever yo you shall give me satisfaction | moment, when the audacious libertine wae stricken "| fur this insult "1 down to-the earth, the colour fled from her ebecks, “It is you*who have perpetrated the insult | leaving them marble pale. Shes against against a well-behaved young lady,” was Octavian’s | the railings which akirted the pathway.of the road, evidly dignified response, “and you have received | and endearoused to compose herself, 00 46 to nuke ad ECOMICHOOKS.CO