The Mysteries of the Court of London, Vol. 7 — page 96: what you’re looking at

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

1 had even: THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. ne moet diminutive sise, but in every variety of beau- The Princess Indora’ was reclining upon a sofa et about the same hour on which, cight days pre- viously, we first infroduced her to the reader. She was apparelled in a similarly fanciful style—only that she wore another dress; but the colours of the separate garments were chosen with a most tasteful regard to the delicate duskiness of the complexion, and the nsture of the charma they had to set off., ‘Supremely beautiful—eminently handsome indeed—was the Princess Indora, as she reposed, in her oriental garb, upon she velvet sofa in that eumptuously furnished room. And as be- fore too, there were intervals when she was deeply pensive-—other intervals when she experienced a nervous exditement: for, as the reader is aware, it was on this evening that she was to receive the final decision of the object of hor love. Presently the door opened ; and Sagoonah made her appearance. She entered, bearing the massive silver salver on which was the cut glass containing sherbet, and which she presented on bended knee eto the Princess. The Hindoo woman was clad in the same style as that which we have before de- scribed, and which was so admirably calculated to eet off the lithe bayadere symmetry of her shape, and to leave her form and limbs completely free for every movement and gesture. “ Within the hour that is passing, my faithful Rapoonah,” said the Princesa, when she had quaffed a portion of the sherbet, “my fate will be sealed. The alternatives between which I am balancing, are happiness and misery. Both are in extromes—and there is no medium in which I may take refuge. You, Sagoonah, who have been my coniidante—you who have served me so faithfully—you who shrank aot from accompanying me on my long, lon ,ourney to a strange clime,—you, I say, must fee some anxiety as to the result of this evening’s interview ?” “TI do, lady,” responded Sagoonah; and aa she atood somewhat aside, her eyes suddenly flashed strange fires. “You know, Sagoonab,” continued the Princess, “how fondly—how devotedly I have for years loved that man! ‘You know how god-like was his beauty when first he became my father's pri- eoner-———”’ “T know it, Princess,” responded Sagoonah. “TI was then a girl of about ten years of age.” @ And 1 was fifteen,” observed the Princess, in a low musing tone. “Yes—fifteen years hate elapsed aince the first day that I beheld Clement Redehiffe! He was the first Englishman that I too, your Highness, that I ever saw ;” interjected Slgoonah: and though her words were eutttered with tbat profound respect which had be- come habftual to her, it was nevertheless with a slight air of abstraction that she thus spoke. “Fifteen years—the most precious ones of my life,” continued Indora, “have been passed in a love that has been all but hopeless. No—not for if so, I could not have existed: but it is at least a love that has experienced no reciprocity. Yes—handsome as edine being of « higher world, was that Englishman when first we met! He fella me that he is changed now—and that the marks of age are coming thickly and rapidly upon him. If so, I behold them note SANIOL What to me is it if his form should chi bis mind still shines with tho never divi * OF parishable light of one of these goms Mogi: monds of the largest size and cf the most deia an brilliancy. “‘ Methought,” continued the Patni “that so long as he was a prisoner in my eapital, bia proud soul would disdain to hend qi kK 7 : a vs Ae © wy piras a . ‘ my father would have given him his liberty, it was in compliance with my secret promptings that | he atill retained him a prisoner. Yes--I did so prompt my father; for much as I Joved Clement Redcliffe-—deeply, deeply av I took his welfare to heart—I could not possibly bring myself to eay the word which should make him free, and incur the risk of losing him for ever. He —you are aware how: you know too how wild was my anguish—how bitter my grief, when I received the tidings of his flight. But then I thought to myself that parhaps now that he was free, he might no longer look upon me as one who was wronging him: he might forget the past—-or at least pardon it, on account of all the love I bore him. I fidttered myself too, that this love ea deep, so devoted, so imperishable, could scarcely fail tc beget a kindred feeling. The eagle requires ample apace for the play of hie huge wings and the soar- ing of his ambitious flight: and eo I thought that the proud soul of Clement Redcliffe, when enjoying the freedom of the whole world’s range, might look upon me with a different regard from that with which it waa wont to survey me in the nar- row circuit of my father’s capital. Sagoonah, think you that this hope will be disaypointed P” “Princess,” responded the Hiuduo dependant, “I am but little accustomed to rvad the human heart: and the heart of an Englishman appears to me as inscrutable as the mysterics of some forbid- den book.” “True!—you cannot judge it,” observed the Princess, in a low musing tone. “And more- er, you have never loved, Sagoonah. No . wave never ldved: you know not what love is. You have beet attached to me from your child- hood; and if you had experienced the slightest scintillation of that passion which I feel, you would have told me—or I should have discovered it. Is it not so, Sagoonah ?”—and the Prinvess raised.her large lustrous eyos, dark as those of the gazelle, towards the countenance of her dependant. “Tt is so, lady,” responded Sagoonah, in a low but firm voice. “J marvel that you never joved,” proceeded Indora, still in that same musing manner as before. “It appears to me that a heart susceptible of love must be invariably assceiated with beauty of the person :—it seems as if beauty, being formed to ereate love, ought to prove susceptible of the fire which it kindles. And you, my faithful Sagoonah, possess charms superior to any of your sex or caste, in your own native land. Yes, you are bandsome-—-very handsome !”’-—-and now the syas of the Princess wandered slowly, and with « cer- tain degree of listless abstraction, over the bayadere- like form of her attendant. : Sagoonah stoud perfectly motionless—her Sgure ie ares ibaa} towards her who was the daughter of him whe |. held him captive. 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