The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 23: what you’re looking at

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

ne a nd —_ 10 THE MYSTEBIES OF THE COUBT. vacst picturesque parte of Radnorshire. =e had possessed his firat and only luve— tris habitation was upon an eminence: and a beauti- | the love of an entire life! And as he reflected upon ful garden sloped gently down to a purling rivulet | this image, and thought how time and affliction which formed its boundary. In the rear of the | might have marred those lovely lmeamente, reneering house there was a paddock, in which the deer dis- | thear possossor prematurely old,—the tears trickled ported gaily, and where the ewans floated upon a | down the nobleman’s cheeks; and he wept—Oh! piece of artificial water. be wept as convulsively as a child! It was about eleven o’clock in the forenoon, that | And was not he too changed? Would even the the Marquis of Eagledean, having walked forth " from Rhavadergwy, where he arrived on the pre- vious evening, approached this dwelling of which we have just spoken. His countenance - the penetrating eyes of love,—-if love she stili cherished towards him—be enabled to discern in his altered a mingled anxiety and seriousness. More than six- | object of her worship in by-gone years? The teen years had elapsed since he had seen Lady Ever- | quis indeed felt that the meeting which was about to ton; and he was now about to present himeolf | take place, would be under very painfel circum before her. He had learnt in the town that she | stances. lived in an almost total seclusion—that she was ex-/| Wiping away the tears from his cheeks, and evedingly charitable and devout—bat that it was | subduing his emotions as well.as he wae able, Lord generally reposted and believed in the neighbour- | Bagledean advanced a little nearer to the dwelling hood that her reason was affected. The Marquis | and reached a hedge-row that bordered the garden had not chosen to appear too minute in his inquiries; | on the side skirting the road along which he was and therefore beyond these few particulars he. had | walking. In a few moments he beheld a lady de- learnt little or nothing. scending the steps of the front-door. She came On reaching the vicinage of the habitation, he | forth slowly—looking neither to the right nor to the stopped short at a distance of about fifty yards, and | lbeft—but with her eyes bent downward, as if in gased upon it with the feeling we have above de- | deepest thought. She was dreseed in black; and a ecribed,—a feeling of mingied seriousness and | sable veil was thrown over her head—but not so as anxiety. Yes: upwards of sixteen years had elapsed | © conceal her features. From the point where the since he had seen her—and she was then thirty | Marquis suddenly halted on perceiving her, he could of age. She must therefore be now forty-six. , not obtain even the slightest glimpse of that coun- an immense change have been accom, | tenanos; and yet he felt convinced that this was ing this interval in her personal appear- | the Alexandrina of his enduring and faithful love! too all the more remarkable and | Yes—the figure was exactly of her stature: it was because it was not the lapse of | not bowed by yeare—it was still apright as in her would havo effected it—care and | youthful days he had known it tobe. But it was ve combined to accomplish the | from an intuitive presentiment rather than from something profoundly sad—eome- | actual observation, tbat he experienced the convic- solemnly awful in the thoeght, that | tion that this was ehe whom he sought. in a few minutes he would at a single; He remained where he was concealed behind the enabled to observe the full extent of that | hedge, hoping thet she woald approach near enough and to perceive how powerful had been the | on the other side for him to obeerve her attentively ravages of time and the desolating influences of ' and well, so that whatever ehock might be destined affliction. And then—ge he stood thus meditating | for him from her altered appearance should have ~back to the mind: of the Marquis of Eagledean | passed away ore he revealed himself to her. De- eame the image of Alexandrina as she was when he | seending the steps, she traversed a large grass plat had last seen her. Then she was in all the glorious : in front of (he mansion—end then slowly entered beauty of womanhood,—perfectly resembling that! the gravel-walk which ran behind the hedge. Hos it which he had so recently seen in his daughter | stepe were deliberate: she advanced like one whe Elisabeth’s possession, and which was engraved | was all the time absorbed in profound thought, and from an original painted in 1828, when she was in | who took no notice of the trees, the flowers, and the her thirtieth year. Then her countenance was of a | natural boauties by which she was surroandeg, perfectly oval-shape, with a forehead of nuble | The sun was powerful—and she drew her veil com: height—a forehead, too, fair and pure as the chast- | pletaly over. her countenamce: so that as she ap- 3 That te TE it ‘ ; upon her back. Then the darkly pencilled brows | was little impaired by the lapse of time: it was not — wa ~o threw out in lovolier contrast the purity of those , emaciated—it was not reduced to leanness—on the temples on the upals of which they were set; and contrary, it presented all the fine contours of e the long ebon fringes of the eyes mitigated without more youthful period. Could this lady indeed be subduing the lustre of the magnificent orbs them- she whom he had come to visit ? selves. Then, too, the lips from which hisown had: She paseed by on the other side of the verdant so often culled ecstatic but guilty kisses, were full barrier; and the Marquis strained his eyes to pene- and of the richest redness; and the low-bodied trate aleo through the thick folds of the verl: but dress, which she was wont to wear in compliance the attempt was vain—he eould not catch the slight- with the fashion of the age, afforded a glimpse of ' est glimpse of the countenance thus hidden. She the well-proportioned bust. Such was the bright proceeded on tuwards the lower part of the garden; and beautiful image which wae conj up to the and Lord continued his way to the gate memory of the Marquis of Ragledean—the image which afforded admittance to the grounds. person one single lineament to remind her of the: a eT See i ae i ap a ID I AO, a e eS ry 2 aS Ca a a SS . eae CYL CO IMULUG DOO CS (COL