The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 95: what you’re looking at

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

. re 82 THE MYSTERIES. CE reece == man, whose pecuniary affairs seemed at least to be sovolved in embarrassment—it was as the fuzitive from pursuing harpies of the Jaw, that you were thus admitted into the sanctuary of her soul! And when once you had obtained admission there, Oh! how soon—how soon did you rifle that shrine of the only gem which it possessed !—how prompt and how tremendoas was the havoc made by your sacri- legious hand !—how remorseless was the vandalism of that ruin which you feft iu a temple where all was bright and holy, pure and uncorrupted, until then {” 3 “ Pauline, you know that I could not repair by marriage the injury which I had done to your sister,” said the Prince, somewhat touched by the young lady's reproaches, but assuming a more con- trite tone and humbled manner in order to move her by that semblance of penitence and sorrow. “ I confess that my conduct was wrong—very wrong: but I beseech you to consider that I was hurried on by an infatuation which I could not control—a passion which swept me along as if with the force of a torrent ;—and I solemnly swear, Pauline, that had Satan demanded my soul as the price of Oc- tavia’s love, I should have madly embraced the compact. Pity me, therefore, while you blame me-——” “Ah! Prince of Wales,” interrupted the Hon. Miss Pauline Clarendon, “ your tongue is so used to the ready utterance of passionate avowals, that the same language, with a few trifling verbal altera- tions, serves likewise in an apologetic sense. Bué I am not to be deluded by your sophistry: and therefore do I tell your Royal Highness to your face that the heartless treachery practised by you towards my sister, constitutes one of the blackest chapters in your life !” “ Pauline, I will not hear avy more!” exclaimed the heir-appareut, now unable to curb his wrath. “I thought that you had generously accorded me permission to give full vent to my feelings and sentiments upon this topic?” said the young lady, her rich red lips wreathing into a satirical smile. “ Proceed, then— proceed,” cried the Prince, sub- duing his impatience as well as he was able: then to himself he said, “ By heavens! she is ravishing in that garb—aye, and also in that angry mood ;— and I will gratify my vengeance for all these re- proaches at the same time that I will appease the flame of this new passion which devours me !” “TI have bat little more to say,” continued Pau- line, who was too much absorbed in the engrossing topic of her sister’s wrongs to observe the peculiar nature of the pre-occupation which seized upon the Prince while he was thus masing to himself. “ But I cannot depart hence nor suffer this opportanity to escape without protesting—solemnly protesting, alike in my sister’s name and in my own—against that scandalous compromise which, although my owo parent was a party to it, I cannot do otherwise than denounce in the strongest terms. Alas! alas! that my infatuated father, dazsied by the false light of empty honours and ruled by the designing wo- man whom he has made his wife, shoald have con- sented to receive a title as the atonement and the propitiation for his outraged daughter’s wrongs! Lut that your Royal Highness may not think so ill of wwe nor do me so foul an act of injustice as to suppose that I rejoice in the sudden elevation of “y family to the rank of nobilty, J now solemnly declare that I look with loathing, with abhorrence, aud with shame, upon this gilding which has beea spread over an indelible disgrace; and while my heart sickens at the thought that my own father could accept sach a compensation for so immea- surable a wrong, I likewise hold in boundleas con- tempt that Royal Family who could have dared in the first instance to offer the miserable bauble of a coronet in retarn for the priceless gem of a wo- man’s virtue !” “And now, Pauline, you have said all that you have to say,” observed the Prince, with the cool- oess and heartless indifference of a thorough liber- tine; “and you will perhaps permit me to speak. But shall we not be seated 2” he asked : for through- out the preceding dialogue they had remained standing at a short distance from each other. * No,” replied Pauline: “our interview will ter- Minate in a few minutes—and I am not so wearied that I cannot dispense with a seat while listening to anything that you may have to say.” “ Be it so,” exclaimed the Prince, for a moment abashed, embarrassed, and even overawed by that Gignity which the young lady wore as it were without an effort, and which made her as a mere Woman more powerful in a moral sense than he was as a Prince: but casting off that strange influence which thus dominated him for nearly a minute, he said, “You have reproached me at great length for my conduct towards Octavia—and you have likewise repudiated alli idea of adhesion to that species of tacit compromise which has made your father a peer. Well—I have already admitted that my behaviour in respect to your sister was improper and even cruel; and if you can show me what reparation I, as a Prince, and as the heir-apparent lo the throne of these realms, can make, you have but to name your demands. Then, as for the compromise, [ frankly and candidly acknowledge my conviction that you have spoken the truth in denouncing and disavowing it. But while I thus do justice to your own inde- pendence of spirit and virtuous indignation of feel- ing,” continueé the Prince, ina tone of courteous hauteur, “Ido not hesitate to declare my opinion that since your father is satisfied with the arrange- ments which have been made, you have no longer a right to complain. Octavia belongs to her sire—and not to her sister !* “Contemptible sophistry!” ejaculated Pauline, her beauteous countepande becoming red with indig- nation: and the crimson glow suffused itself over her neck and all that was visible of her virgin bosom. “ Well—it may sound like sophistry to your ears,” aaid the Prince, in an easy and familiar tone—as if he knew that not only the argument was on his side, but that he had a means in reserve of humbling that lovely girl so dignified and s0 strong in tbe conscious- ness of her virtue. “It is also the opinion of the world and the expression of the law, that I thus enunciate: for the parent alone could commence an action for the seduction of his daughter. But let us now take leave of this subject and pass on to another. I presume you fully comprehend that it was in con- sequence of a stratagem you were brought hither said the heir-apparent, with the coolest effrontery imaginable. “I know that you are capable of any villany, Prince,” returned Pauline, a slight shudder passing over her frame as she was thus reminded of the cir- cumstances of her position at so late an hour: but 9 ecomilcooolks