The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 284: what you’re looking at

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

a —and geet had she satisfied herself on «this head, when she heard footsteps stealthily ascend- ing the stairs. Her breath was suspended as she listened—her - bosom remained upheaved for a few moments—and | the colour came and went upon her cheeks in varia- tions as rapid as the play of the moonlight upon the rippling surface of a lake. The dreaded instant was at hand—and she experienced a sensation like a warning that this was a crisis in her destiny. Another moment—and the door opened ! Then the breath came again—and the bosom fel] —yes, and the heart too fell within. A dimness over- | spread her vision, and she staggered a few steps backward, as the ominous figure, muffled in the capacious cloak and, with a large hat slouched over the countenance which it completely shaded, crossed 1 the threshold and stood in her presence. But when that figure, like some sinister being of another 67 in afk the belief struck to the ‘ankaten Countess that she was now alone with the resuscitated cri- | thought sent through her entire frame such a thrill of horror that she was instantaneously Se ae eras oe ee eee Seva unenviable pe me visitor stood there—nor offered to re- Countem as ‘singular. “She upon him an eagle glance—a glance which pierced like a light- ning-flash through the shade in which the slouching brims and the high cloak-collar obscured his fea- tures;—and then a scream burst from her lips as she saw that her visitor was not Philip Ramsey. At the same mom ent the hat was flung off—the stood in the presence of the Peecat octaagke! De 7 borough. “lam betrayed! I am bet aved |” she murmursc (©) AMC OO (CO