The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 27: what you’re looking at

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

Vg® queer <r eee ee ee ey EE eS Ee Gd ae PCr eae 14 THE MYSTERIES OF THER COURT. ee Sir William and Lady Lomax and their three | lands—were introduced. But still there was one daughters—who were present, you know, at the. to arrive whose appearance Eliza deeply dreaded. happy ceremony which made you mine—are like- | This was Lord Clanton. When at Oxford, she wise coming to pass s week with us. Tell me, | had never seen Hugh: she was likewise aware dear Eliza—are you pleased with these arrange. | that Bertram had never breathed to his brother a ments ?” syllable of their love; and it was not therefore The Duke studied his utmost to render himself ! through fear that this would be betrayed to the and all his plans agreeable to his young bride; | Duke, that the Duchess dreaded to encounter and with her habitual amiability, she expressed her | Lord Clandon. But she thought to herself that if gratitude and her satisfaction. Lord Clandon bore a resemblance to the lost Ber- “ And there 1s another puést too, whom we may ' tram, her presence of mind would be put to the expect this evening in time for the dinner-hour,” | sorest, severest test it had as yet experienced, and continued the Duke. ‘“ My nephew, Lord Clan- | she would have to pass through an ordeal fraught don, who has just returned from a long Conti-! with anguish and mental agony to which the tor- nental tour, has written to offer his congratulations | tures of the rack were paradise in comparison. on my marriage, and to express his earnest desire | But the dinner-hour came—and Lord Clandon to pay his respects to my beautiful Duchess. The | made not his appearance. After waiting some letter is altogether nicely and prettily worded— | time, the Duke decided that the banquet should with a manly generosity and frankness too, for | be served up. It was so—the ladies in due course which,” added the Duke almost involuntarily, and | adjourned to the drawing-roem—where in another in a sort of musing strain, “I should scarcely have | hour they were joined by the gentlemen. It was given Hugh ‘credit. However,” he went on hastily | now past nine o'clock; and Eliza was just con- to observe, as if ashamed at having thus betrayed | gratulating herself that the dreaded meeting would even the slightest fear as to the impreasion which | be postponed until the following day,—when the his marriage might have made upon his nephew,— | sounds of an equipage dashing up to the front of “ T have answered him kindly, and invited him to| the mansion, reached her ears. Now she sum- Visit us.” moned all her fortitude to her aid—all her presence Again did the mention of that name of Clandon | of mind. Sir William Lomax — a tall, thin, call up with painful vividness the memories of the | aristocratic-looking man, far advanced in years— past—those memorics which were in reality never | was conversing with her at the time; and this absent from Eliza’s mind, but which unless thus | perhaps was fortunate for her,—inasmuch as if stirred up, floated only with the sereneness of re- | younger and more penetrating cyes had been fixed signation, as a sort of perpetual under-current of | upon her countenance, the evidences of a strong the thoughts. Yct though thus strongly agitated | inward trouble might have been read. The within, her countenance betrayed nothing of what | drawing-room door was thrown open; and a she felt. domestic announced in a Joud voice, “ Lord In the course of the afternoon Mrs. Bailey’s | Clandon.” . travelling-chariot dashed up to the grand entrance; The Duke greeted his nephew warmly; and of Oaklands; and Eliza was clasped in the arms of | there was something in his cordial clasp of the her father. Ife mistook tho filial enthusiasm of | hand which seemed to convey a heartfelt gratitude her embrace for an evidence of complete satisfac- | for the generous, frank, and magnanimous manner tion and happiness on account of the alliance | in which Hugh had expressed himeclf with regard which she had furmed; and whatsoever apprchen- | to a marriage which he had in reality so little sions had previously filled his mind on that score, | reason to like. For Lord Clandon, in default of were dissipated In a moment. But when Eliza | issue, was the heir to the estates and title of came to revard Captain Lacey attentively, sho per- | Marchmont ; and this alliance on the part of his ceived that he was looking exceedingly ill—and j uncle with a young wife only just twenty-one that the smiles which her presence and his own | years of age, naturally gave every promise that relieved thoughts conjured up, beamed upon a| Hugh’s hopes and expectations would be disap- countenance that was thin, haggard, and care- | pointed. worn. She comprehended all that he must have| “Welcome, my dear nephew, to Oaklands,” felt on her account—his deep anxiety lest his| said the Duke. “And now permit me at once to parting injunctions should have been disregarded, | preserit you to ome to whom you are anxious te and that she might have betrayed the past when | become known.” made aware of the family into which she had| Eliza had not dared fling even a single glance married. Pained by bis appearance, she lavished | towards the door when i¢ opened. She rose from upon him the most tender caresses; and the old , her seat, and stood motionless,—a wild excitement man’s happiness now appearcd as complete as the | in her mind, but with all the outward appearance pride of his ambition had already been. As for | of the unstudied grace of a serene and dignified Mrs. Bailey, it was a proud thing for her to be | self-possession. There was confusion in her brain enabled to salute a Duchess as her relative; so!—a veil before her eyes: Sir William Lomax was that in tho increased consequence and importance | saying something to her—she knew not what it which it gave her, she found infinite reason for | was. His voice and the voices of all the others eelf-congratulation at having taken the Captain | in the room, seemed like an unintelligible blending and his daughter by the hand in the moment of | of humming, droning sounds. She heard persons their need. approaching her: then her husband’s voice said, A little later in the afternoon Sir William and | “ Eliza, I have pleasure in introducing my nephew, Lady Lomex, with their three daughters, arrived ; | Lord Clandon.” and as the dinner-hour drew nenr, several other All in an instant she became vividly, fright- gueste—dwellers in the neighbourhood of Oak- | fully, terribly aware of the necessity of exerting aed (COL (C DOO CS (COL