The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 259: what you’re looking at

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| 250 THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. terest he had previously felt being immensely en- hanced in a moment. “Ah, it is all gone out of my memory again !” she said, shaking her head dolefully: “ you made me start—you drove it away! It is of no use:”— and with these words she plunged abruptly into the copse, thus disappearing from the view of the amazed Captain and his equally astonished groom. “There is something extraordinary i, this.” said Stanley to the domestic: «thas woman Qvi- dently knows something—but the impression of it is upon her mind like that of an unusual ghject upon the mind of a child—too dim end vogegtehy to be properly explained. We will returo at onge to the Hall end tell my father what has takeg place. Mr. Redoliffe, ted, gid be should be back by luncheon-time; and thig is lntalligenen waiek he will be deeply igterested to reoaive. Captain Stanley eccordi agly took took the aearoet | route to the Hall, which he o reaghed as Mr. | Redcliffe was alighting from the ‘a carziaga, which had taken him into Liverpool Gir Wiliam Stanley, hig app, and their guest were qgodily closeted together; aud the interview betwega the young gentleman and Crasy Jane was the qaiject of deliberation. “This ta indeed most important,” obese Mi. Redcliffe: “ for it is evidently the same ggbject to | which the weman alluded when we met bar at the fence, and when she aaid that sho had eomething new upon her mind.” “s Let us go and ace her,” gucigiroed the Ba- ronet, “without delay. But n0!—Bedolif, you shall go alone—J have more faith in YOR power to lead her into lucid converaation than j in DY Oy. I have already so often fuiled. Besides, % ia ta- quently to a atganger tbat these ppor demented crealurea will prove more rational to those whom they haye known for a long time, and who have always yoen accustomed to talk to them in a particular “Yea,” wid Mr. Redcliffe, “I will lose no time in seqing bey, I think you atated that her but is about four giles distant & If you indicate the particular direction, I will set out and walk thither.” “Take the carriage—ge ga gm banethanly claimed the Baronet. curred to Mr. Redcliffe that when she was alone she was better able to keep her ideas collected. She had not as yet seen him as he emerged into the lane: he got at the back of the hedge—and stealthily creepipg along, halted close behind the spot where Crazy Jane was still seated. She was continuing to muse in an audible tone, but in exangely disjointed and broken sentences,—the tepour.of which waa however as follows: — “ kt must be many and many a year since thes ~—-r-bus F eansok gecollect how many! I was véry differen§ at thet time——aAhb, so different! People did pok eall me Crany Jane. No, it was ‘ Jane my good girl, do this or do that-"— Ah, that q@as the way wy poor dear mistress used to speak ! @b, how I loved ber! Alas, alas, that it should have all ended as it did——ehocking | shocking ! }¥ know not why I shoald always and always be thigking of it. And yet I can’t belp it. Till that Chhay thing came into my mind, [ never could think of anything else. How piteously she wept! it geally seems as if I saw her now standing before me. Yes, when the mist is deepest around we i ee that one image as plain es ever. She waa not ———no, no, she was not! I am gure ghe was not! Ghe qas too gopd-—too kind for thet. Oh, what beqawe of you, mg deme dear | ppistreas a Crazy Jane eganed: bat her sobs were audible t Mr. Redcliffe ag he listened behind the hedge. “Wo was more beautiful,” at length continued the med woman ia ber audible musings, “ than the Dughew of Marchmont? They should have mar- ged Wer to Bertram Vivian—and not to bis uncle. Alan, alan! to have thrown that divine creature amaxy upon that old man it was shocking ! abocking$ Qiagen and often have I thought of going to Oaklagdg to seo the old place ; and I have dragged mygelf fox miles and miles I wonder how gaey--—alogg the roads and through the felda, uotil E bad pot the courage to go further— and then I hava gome back to my hut. No, no— I could not kegk again upon that house where [ last saw the good Duchess Eliza. I could not tread those gravel-walks where I once saw ber move in all the glory of her beauty! Oh, it was a dreadful day! But those tears which she shed then seem to 2 my heart even xow like scalding poor dear mistress, I could have laid “No,” rejoined Mr. Redolifie: “EF wih qalk-v| dome wy life for you !” because in that case | may ateand a better chance of falling in with hee if she be ramblin prety And I will go alone too, ag aA may be the less embarrassed and bewildered jm conversing with one than in talking in the papsence of two or more.” Sir William Stanley gave Mr. Redolifle. anfiicient explanations to guide him tomagda Creasy Jane’s hut; and that gentleman accordingly agit ont He had "proceeded for a distance of about three yiles across the fields, when on emerging into a lane bordered by high thick hedges, he perceived Crazy Jane sitting on the green bank under one of these hedges, rocking herself to and fro and speaking aloud. An idea suddenly entered Mr. Redcliffe’s mind. He remembered that Captain Stanley had stated how Crazy Jane had spoken of having “said it all to herself,” and how by an incautious ejaculation he had driven the poor woman’s ythoughts out of her head; and it therefore oc- Here there was anothgr Range in the poor mad | - Woman’s musings; and did her convulsive sobs reach the ears of Clement Redcliffe. ‘What darkness and confusion have been in my brain ever since!”” she once more mused audibly. “ And yet there are times that I sce it all before me, so plain—so plain—that I think it is taking place all over and over anew! But this other thing tliat is now in my mind——Ict me reflect! When did it happen? Oh, poor creatare that I am—I cannot remember anything about dates; and yet I am sure it was not near 90 far back as those dreadful scenes at Oaklands———na, not near so far back! I was a young woman; and they used to say I was pretty at the time the dear Duchess and Bertram Vivian But what could have become of them both P” she ejaculated, thus suddenly interrupting herself: “what could have become of them? I wander again !— there is that other thing I wish to get back to my EORAIClIOO© CS (COL