The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 395: what you’re looking at

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394 THE MYETERIES OF THE COURT. “They have no children, I believe?” remarked ; Mr. Denison. “It is just the same story with Hawkshaw. “None,” answered Denison: “ but the Count is not the less devoted to his wife on that score. They are all in all to each other, and do not seem to want any addition to their family. The tenants and peasantry on their estate speak in the highest terms of them: the Count is an excellent landlord; and the Countess is profuse, though secret and un- ostentatious, with her charities. You will find amongst letters one from that excellent- hearted Spanish nobleman, inviting you to stay with him.” “Another visit that I am resolved to pay,” responded Hawkshaw. “These pictures of do- mestic felicity quite enchant me. Pray proceed with them.” “Oh, they are not yet exhausted!” exclaimed Denison. “I visited Everton Park, which is in Hertfordshire, about twenty miles from London. You know that this belongs to Lord Everton, who married Miss “ And a sweet pretty girl I thought her on her wedding-day,” cried Hawkshaw. “Four such lovely brides were never to be seen before assem- bled in one room—and never will be seen again. By the way, what has become of the young lord’s yncle—the old villain who kept him ao long in captivity, deprived of his just rights P”’ “ He perished miserably of some incurable and excruciating malady, about six or eight months ago, on the Continent. From intelligence which reached the Marquis of Eagledean, it appears that two hangers-on—a man named Mark Bellamy, and a woman called Mrs, Martin—clung to him until the very last. They led him a fearful life,— spending upon themselves the greater portion of the income so generoualy allowed by the much- injured nephew,—and leaving the old man some- times in want of the barest necessaries. However, he is gone to another world; and what has become of Bellamy and Mrs. Martin I have not heard.” _ “But I presume and hope that Lord Everton and his beautiful wife are as happy as the other couples whom you have mentioned?” said Hawk- shaw. “ Equally so,” responded Mr. Denison. “ They have one child—a son whom they doat upon, and whom they contemplate with pride as the heir to the title and estates. Everton Park is one of the most beautiful spote in Hngland. It was thither, as you are aware, that Frank and Elisabeth were conveyed in their childhood to see their then unhappy mother, the present-happy Marchionéss of Eagledean. Frank and the Oounteas of Christoval have been on a visit to the Park ; and I can fancy what their feelings were when they looked upon those scenes of which they had thus obtained a glimpse in their childhood, and which must have been associated with such mysterious memories until the secret of their birth was cleared up. Amongst your letters is one from Lord Everton—or Adolphus, as all his friends and relatives call him : it likewise contains an invitation—and as you have niced on accepting the others, you cannot refuse “Nor should I think of doing so,” answered Hawkshaw. “And now there remains one more eoaple for you to of.” “Mr. Dxveril and Lady Florina,” observed | fae <a — o — - — ae oe - ~~ Lord Saxondale himself regard to them as it was in to the others; and if I had said at once that all the four couples at whose weddings we were present, enjoy an equal amount of felicity, I might have summed up these elaborate details in a very few words.” “Not too elaborate, my dear friend,” rephed Hawkshaw, “inasmuch as they are so deeply in- which the Marquis of Eagiedean, Count Christoval, and Lord Everton jointly purchased for them P And that, I believe, is at /no great distance from Edenbridge P”’ “ Not above a dozen miles,” answered Denison ; “and it is a sweet spot. Deveril and his wife, the charming Fiorina, are eo happy in their married state, and with their little girl—a lovely child, by the bye, just four months old—that if there be a drawback, it is only on socount of the life led by Fiorina’s brother, Lord Harold Staunton.” “Ah!” ejaculated Hawkshaw, “I used to hke that young nobleman at one time—I mean when he was staying down here at the Castle, the year before last, and when he nearly got killed by thrown off my thorough-bred. But I am afraid he is a sad fellow.” “ He is living almost openly with Lady Saxon- dale,” responded Denison. “ Nothing could be more shameless: her Jadyship seems not merely lost to all sense of decency, but to hold up her head higher in her and disgrace than she ever did when standing on the pinnacle of a stainless reputation. I understand that . Lord Harold Staunton is constantly at Saxondale House —that he almost lives there entirely—and that though he has a lodging somewhere in the neigh- bourhood—decency’s last rag, as it may be called —yet that he more frequently sleeps at Saxondale House than at his own abode. Conceive what an example for a son, to be the constant com of his own mother’s acknowledged paramour !” “It is shocking,” observed Hawkshaw: then, after a little hesitation, be inquired, “Has any- thing more been heard of Juliana P” “Ah! by the bye,” ejaculated Denison, “I have not seen you since that dreadful exposure whick was recently published in the English ne translated from the French I mean the start- ling discovery that Juliana’s husband who passed as the Count of Toledo, was none other than a notorious § bandit Ramon de Collantes.” “Taleo read that statement,” observed Hawk- shaw: “and I must say that I somewhat pitied the unfortunate young lady, notwithstanding her vile conduct towarda me. Is it known what has become of her ?” “I have not heard,” responded Mr. Denison. “ Heavens! what a family it is! The only one who has turned out well, is Constance the Mar- chioness of Villebelle: and it was altogether by flying in her mother’s face and bestowing her hand where het heart was already given, that ahe has thus prospered. Her very disobedience has there- fore been the source of her good fortune,—which almost proves that to be undutiful to such a mother was to be on the safe side.” “Did you hear anything, when in London, of “Only that he has become so dissipated as t we eee we oe i SS ee —2 58 -ae o> eee oe = a a en ee eee (COIMUC DOO CS (COL