The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 154: what you’re looking at

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

Se ee ees aarp weenensesupsennanenenapens> THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. but yet the fairest exterior often veils the foulest corruptions. There is some deep mystery in con- nexion with that box which is to come next Tues- day night from thie house ; and I must fathom it. Every incident, however trivial it may appear, is to me of momentous import, Who knows how it may serve as a link in that chain which I am en- deavouring to follow up? The link may not for the moment seem to fit: but it must not on thia account be discarded. Who oan tell but that it will sooner or later find ite appropriate place and belp me on to the eccomplishment of my aim : While thus meditating, Clement Redcliffe pur- sued his way—at first without perceiving the di- rection he wae taking, and without any specific object in view. But suddenly be bethought him- aelf of a poor invalid old man whose case had be- come known to him in his wanderings about the metropolis, and whose last few weeks in this life 141 might have been about her own age; and his appearance indicated a distinguished position, as we have already said that her's likewise did. But that he was not her husband, Clement Redcliffe saw ata glance: for though they were unconscious of his presence, yet there was something evi- dently stealthy in their meeting at that place. No husband would have held her hand as he did: no wife in the presence of a husband would have worn that expression which was visible in her deep blue brooding eyes, and in the passiou- breathing lips, which, slightly apart, afforded a glimpse of the pearls within. And he was speak- ing in a low murmuring voioe, but with a tender persuasivenesa of the look—as if he were pleading a causa whose only argument was love, and to which she could not yield with honour to her- self. The rising and sinking of the shawl folded over her full and swelling bust, denoted the agi- tation which reigned in her heart: though she stood otherwise perfectly still and motionless, , with thet fair white hand abandoned to her lover, and with the colour coming and going . rapidly upon her beautiful damask cheeks. he was soothing with that quiet unostentatious benevolence which he was wont to afford. The medical man whose sarvices hia pursehad provided for this invalid, had recommended certain little delicacies, cooling fruita, and so forth; and Red- cliffe now continued his way towards Covent Gar- den Market, to make such purchases as. under the eiroumstences he thought would be ecceptable. Arrived in the arcade, his charitable intentions were speedily catried out: and on quitting the fruiterer’s shop, be strolled ap to the terrace on the roof of the market, where flowers are ex~ hibited. Redcliffe was passionately fund of contemplating floral rarities, —a taste which was natural with his refined intelligence, and which had been strengthened by bis long residence in an oriental clime. He was entering one of the conservatories, when he stepped back with a sudden sense of intrusion upon two individuals who were standing there in deep and earnest conversation,—a conversation 80 absorbing that they did not notice his presence. One was a lady the very Grst glance et whose ap- | lips. pearance was sufficient to impress the beholder with an ides of rank and distinction. She was dressed with that simple e and exquisite refinement of taste which characterized the well- bred woman. The consciousness of bigh birth and the dignity of m blended swedtly and har- moniously with the perfect loveliness of her coun- tenance and the flowing outlines of her eymmetri- cal Hey features, perfect in their profile, had that classic sculpttiral finish which is so seldom ecen : she wee a creature of a magnificent beanty— a beauty that fascinated more than it dazzled, and eathralled the soul mure than it bewildered the imagination. Her age wag about three-and- twenty: she wae tall, with a shape of full deve- loped contours, and yet faultlessly symmetrical in the tapering slenderness of the waist. Her hair was of the richest auburn, flowing in glossy lus- trous tresses from beneath the elegant Parisian bonnet. Her eyes, of the clearest blue, were large and darkly fringed—the brows delicately pencilled and beautifully arched. One hanil had the glove off ;—a small: white delicate hand it was tuo; and one of the tapering flugers wore the wedding- ring. Her compenion, who held that beautiful hand tenderly pressed between both his own, was a young man of perfect masculine beauty. He Such was thespectacle which Clement Redoliffe beheld almost at the firat glance—or at least within the few moments which he lingered upon the threshold of the conservatory. The man who had charge thereof, was attending to a cus- tomer at a little distance on the terrace: that tender pair evidently thought themselves alto- gether alone and unpereeived,—snatching per- haps the quick stolen interview of a few minutes —but these few minutes constituting a period in which a whole world of heart's feelings became mutually expressed. Redcliffe caught the words, “ Madame Angelique” and “M. Bertin,” amidst the otherwise inaudible murmurings of the young man’s voice,—inaudible however only to him : for the lady was evidently drinkingin with mingled hope and fear—love’s passion and alarm —every syllable that came from her companion’s Redcliffe turned abruptly away: but glancing through the glass of the conservatory, he saw that the tender couple atill remained in precisely the same position—and that so far from their being startled by that movement on his part, his presence had continued utterly unper- ceived. “ That ecene is but too intelligible,” ho thought to himself, as he ed to the conservatory at the other end of the terrace. “ There is a young wife not yet lost, but hovering upon the very verge of perdition,—her love getting the better of her sense of duty—-the enamoured tempter’s persuasiveness proving stronger than her pru- dence. Would that r dared step between them to save her, and strengthen that lingering virtue which required so much tender pleading on his part to have its last barriers broken down! But no: itis not for me to intervene. There are deeds which a philanthropist would fain perform—but which, as the world goes, he dares not even approach.” Then it struck Redcliffe as singular that at a moment when he had so'little expected to Lear it, the name of Madamo Angelique should have been mentioned, and coupled too with that of the very person whom he had ere now noticod to be her neighbour. Was it possible that the young man was proposing an assignation, for the carrying out | Qe eG ee EP eee EE 0 ewe eee ee oe = (GO) an (C DOO Col