The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 58: what you’re looking at

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[a8 era «= GP oe ° THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. 45 my love—you shall have no care for your livelihood | take whatsoever I have about me at this momens. -—no need to push your fortune in other realme-—~" | ——-here is gold ———” “ And would you, Jaliana,” interrupted Frank, | Thus speaking, Juliana drew forth her purse: in a volee that was not. merely low, but likewise | but with a sudden cry of indignation and aversion— hollow and gloomy—ead, and even startling to hear | of wounded pride and bitter disappointment— from the lipe of one 80 young,—“and would gos, | | Francis Paton sprang up from the seat in the Juliana, be guilty of each tremendous deceit towards | arbour, dashed the purse from her hand, and bend- a husband, and doom me to the degradation of being | ing upon the astounded and even affrighted lady a a hireling favourite—a pensioned p look so strange, so wild, and so full of ineffable “Dear Frank, how strangely you talk! One | feelings, that it was never afterwards effaced from would really think,” continued Juliana, “that you | her memory, hecried, “ No—everything is at an end were affecting to speak like a Puritan ;’ anand ates | Reteriens 6 I have put you to a test, and I have gazed upon him searchingly, to see if he could | discovered your real possibly be in easnest. “© Juliana,” he exclaimed, with a sudden out- burst of emotion: “do not, do not let me think that it is you who have been speaking in a manner suf- ficient to astonish and bewilder me!—do not destroy the brightest dream thet ever shee Pon fluence upon the human heart! Reoall everything you have said—tell me that you were seeking to put me to the test—that you were compelling me to pass through an ordeal for the purpose of as- suring yourself that I am worthy to become your husband |” “Krank, dear Frank, I am at a loss to compre- hend you:”—and Juliana would have been really and truly angry, had not the youth seemed so eminently handsome at the moment, with the ex- pression of lofty pride upon his brow, and of an earnest entreaty on his eyes and his lips, that che could not bear to reproach him. “ Look me in the face, Juliana,” he said, his voice arain becoming sad and mournful: “look me in the face—not as you are doing now, with all the blan- dishments uf your beanty: but look at me seriously and steadily, and tell me deliberately and frankly whether you ere now expressed your precise mean- ing, and whether you stil} adhere to it—that you are to marry another, but that you will continue to regard me as-~——as-——-I cannot speak the word again! And yet pause, Juliana, before you answer me. Remember that your love has been given to me, and that we are already the same as husband and wife in the sight of heaven. Can you in honour—ean you in delicacy—-can you in decency, accompany another to the altar? can you so far deceive the confiding heart of some fond and no doubt good and honourable man, by suffering him to suppose that it ie a virgin bride whom he is to receive to his arms ?” “Frank,” responded the Hon. Miss Farefield, the eesh of mingled indignation, shame, and humilia- tion rising to her cuuntenance—for she was now truly indignant, and unable to conceal this anger of her's: “you are abusing the position to which my love has raised you in respect to myself. It ill becomes you, Frank, to make my weakness a sub- ject of reproach: and did I love you less, I should be more offended still at this lecture which you are taking upon yourself to read me. Oome, my dear boy—let me hear no more of such speeches from your lips. Have I not offered to do all that woman oan for you? I must ensure my own position: and our happiness may remain uninterrupted. Dear Frank, tell me that you are satisfied with what I have propused ; aud I will no longer be angry with you for the manner in which you addressed me. And now, do not be offended, my dear boy: but o Qe. «ab wate a _—een G2 drab Gummee 4. «2 Ee character. Thank God that I have done so! The veil of infatuation has fallen from iny eyes. Beautiful serpent that you are, there is guile on your lipse—poison throughout your en- tire being! Farewell—farewell, for ever !” Teh these words he turned and fled precipi- tately. “Frank, dearest Frank!" exclaimed Juliana, speeding after him: “ come back to me—come back to me, I conjure you !” But he heeded her not: the paling was reached— he sprang over it quickly: he flew across the park —and in a few minutes was out of sight. CHAPTER XCVIIL HAWKSHAW HALL. As if flying away from a spot where the spells of a worse than Circean enchantment were to be avoided, Francis Paton sped across tha fields, reckless of the course he was taking, and having no thought for - anything but the magnitude of that disappointment which had succeeded the bright hopes so recently entertained. Indeed, he hurried onward as if for the of ou that very thought,—a thought which kept pace with him—haunting him—~ circling him round about—appearing here, thero, and everywhere—racking his brain, torturing his soul, sending pangs through his heart—making him feel as if the earth had nothing that he now need live for. In this manner the unhappy youth sped along through the fields for more than half-an-hour —until at length, wearied and exhausted, he threw himeelf upon a bank beneath a verdant hedge; and This outpouring of his sorrow proved a relief, and by degrees he found himeelf enabled to reflect with comparative calmness upon er that bad just occurred. But for the first few moments he could scarcely bring himself to believe that it was all a reality: it appeared like a dream. Was it possible that Juliana had never loved him as he could only wish to be loved ?—was it possible that he had merely served her sensual phantasy, and that he had been regarded as one who would accept the lot of a profligate lady's paramour? Oh, that he should have been insulted by such a degradation | ~—oh, that he should have been subjected to auch a humiliation! To have been 9 liveried lacquey in her mother’s service, was ifying enough, now that his circumstances were 20 altered: but to be deemed so lost to all honourable principle as to be proffered a position which was infamy iteelf, was enough to make his heart feel as if fiery scorpions were writhing around it. And then, too, to have (COL (C DOO CS (COL