The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 94: what you’re looking at

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

a Pe ae See eee ie ee EE ee — ssw 5 ae —— ee we 2 ——— 4 svi iii i, Li barith ’ mn 1} | r i Yh ig r Peal We. ) 1 | | perhaps, the calmer discourse which will fullow may tend to place us upon a more friendly footing to- gether.” “There is a certain ambiguity in the latter portion of your remarks which I do not choose to under- stand,” said the Hon. Miss Pauline Clarendon, draw- ing her fine form up to its full height and assuming the dignified hauteur of a virtue conscious of its own power. “ But i will avail myself of your permis- sion, she continued, with a subdued irony in her tone, “ to make a few observations on the past. Your Royal Highness dared ere now to assimilate the case of my unhappy sister to those thousand-and- me instances of man’s depravity and woman's weak- aess which are such ordinary episodes in the routine af society. But let me tell you, Prince of Wales, that in this particular amour to which I allude, the j= — = =j ish iv ea — " =. —s —— —— ri ry ~ ee ty ha < Ge UUM | ul} ! Wve " | a | T F TT Phe vey |) ee mh ™~ hi, | | 1K Rae ce 4ncrel HT] Ain i ‘ , dl herself as they are pathetic and touching to con- template or describe. [For Octavia loved you—loved you tenderly and devotedly,—not as the heir-appa- rent to the British throne—but as plain, untitled, and obscure Mr. Harley. Yes—she loved you for yourself only,—believing you to be a private gen- tleman with nothing extraordinary in your social position. On the contrary, she gave you her heart when you came to our house under circumstances calculated to engender suspicions rather than favour- able notions relative to your character: for, if you choose to tax your memory with details doubtless so trifling to one in your position,” continued Pau- line, her tone of reproach again becoming tinctared with irony, “you will recollect the tale you told us of debts incurred for a friend and a flight from the bailiffs who sought to arrest you for those liabilities, man’s treachery was steeped in the blackness of | Well, then—it was not asa Prince nor even as 4 Satan’s own iniquity, and the woman’s frailty was tended 2 circumstances as palliative in respect to rich man that Octavia regarded you when she gave you her virgin love! No:—it was as a simple gentle- COMMUC DOO co