The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 162: what you’re looking at

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a es , THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. 156 what could there possibly be against her? If a de- CHAPTER CXIX. praved character, and of notoriously damaged repu- tation, would she have had the audacity to present SDMUND AND THE BARONESS. hervelf at that assemblage at all ? and would not the stewards have given her a hint to retire? She could Muarwuits Lord Saxondale and the Baroness de not be an adventures: for that she was the Baroness Charlemont were continuing their way towards | de Charlemont was evident enough: the two stran- travelling all night, they reached that ! gers whose remarks had ere now caught his ears, hour in the morning. Having | corroborated that fact. She was evidently rich; for breakfasted at an hotel, they embarked on board | her mansion in Paris was splendid—her equipage one of the steam-packets plying between Calais | appropriately handsome—and moreover, she had not and by mid-day reached the latter | only offered him a sum of money, but on happening eas yeneienen 0s he My ew, to open her writing-deek at the hotel in Calais where they breakfasted, she had displayed a quantity wes getting in readiness, the Baroness ascended to of notes and gold. What, tem, oul here Te iF BE | vhs; iit " 3 tli a chamber with her maid, to amend her toilet. | against her? Nothing—assuredly nothing |! Lord Saxondale gave his orders to the waiter in| All theap reflections swept through the mind of respect to the repast; and was making some in- | Lord Saxondale in a much less space of time than it quiries concerning the trains to London,—when, as | has taken us to record them; and scarcely had he the room door stood open, he heard the name of the | arrived at the conclusion that the dim and vague Baroness mentioned by an unknown voice on the | suspicions which had begun to float in his mind landing outside. were utterly unfounded, when she made her appear- “Ne, really—is it sht, though?” said another | ance in another toilet. Her exquisite beauty, which voices equally unknown to Lord Saxondale. was really of transcending splendour, at once had “ Yes—I tell you again that she is none other | the effect of banishing even the memory of those than Madame de Charlemont, who——”" suspicions from the young nobleman’s mind; and “ Hush! we shall be overheard.” under the empire of her brilliant charms and softly Then the voices consed; and Saxondale’s cars seneucus sxailes, he became all confidence and tras » | Sadness cine mace. ing the stairs. When luncheon was over, Edmund was informed The waiter, who was referring to a Railway one of the waiters that as there was some little man did not himself catch those observations. But | cordingly repaired to the Custom House; and was when he had left the room, Saxondale said to him- | soon in the midst of the bustling crowd of govern- eclf, “ My beloved Adelaide”—for that was the | ment officials, hotel commissioners and waiters, and Christian name of the Baroness de Charlemont— | impatient travellers, in the room where all the lug- “ seems to create @ sensation wherever sho appears. | gage that had arrived in the steam-packet, was being it is no doult bar extraundinsry benuty whieh Guns inspected. He could not immediately obtain the makes her remarked.” ' | attention of the proper officer to whom he had to But still there was apmething very much like address himself: and he therefore stood apart until slight suspicion and vague misgiving floating in | his turn should come. ‘Near the spot where he Secondale's mind, ike a dim and scarcely peroepti- | thus stationed himeelf, there was a group of young ble gossamer wreath in the twilight of evening ; and , English gentlemen, whom he recognised to have infatuated though he were—frivolous and rash | been on bosrd the packet ; and he heard one of them though he aleo was in obeying tlie impulse of his say ina quick but subdued voice, “There! that’s ' peasions and giving way to the slightest whims of | Lord Saxondale! It’s he who was with the Baroness his instincts—he could not help that it de Charlemont.” would have been well to know something more rela-} “Hush! he will overhear you,” eaid another; and tive to the Baroness, ere he so precipitately made the group, in order to continue the onversation, her an offer of his hand. Had she indeed given him ‘ moved se little farther off, and passed behind an the true version of the reasons for which she was: immense pile of bales of goods; so that they were and shunned at the ball at the Odeon ' now hidden from Edmund's view. Theatre P ould that treatment have arisen from the | Again did all those vague and indistinct suspicions jealousy of the ladies and the vindictive disappoint- spring up in Edmund's mind; ead he instinctively ment of her would-be admirers of the other sex P drew close towards the pile of goods, so that he might The story, though so implicitly believed by Edmund be enabled to hear what was passing on the other when he first heard it, now struck him as somewhat ‘ side. extraordinary. If only a portion of the ladies—the| “But what did she do it for?’ asked one of the younger ones, for instanco—had neglected her for | young men. such a cause,—and only some portion of the gentle- | “ No one knows,” replied another. “It’s one of men,—the tale would have been more feasible: but those things that bafile all conjecture.” the shunning of her was so universal at the time— | “JT dare say there was a lover at the bottom of he himeelf constituting the only exception ; for even ' it.” the very stewards whose duty and office it was to be | “ Nothing of the sort! I never heard the Baraness civil and pay attention to every one at such en as- de Charlemont’s chastity called in question. On semblage, proffered not the slightest courtesy to the the contrary, it is well known that though her hus- Baroness de Charlement! But on the other hand, band was so old and ugly, and so mutilated in the eles weg o o-~ @erw- 8 = ° Guts =ay a —_ ma Cit TS Ee EGOMGIOOKSHEO