The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 280: what you’re looking at

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

e-=Pr 2 8 «ab GP“ Sa Galant @ qa an ——S es Eo THE MYSTERIZG OF THE COURT. about the gardens: but the Kezl took good eare to keep them at a tolerable distance from the private door. Thus an hour passed; and then he pro- posed to return into the house. But on passing |: in-doors, the old nobleman made some excuse } to leave them; and he hastened back into the “Ab, my young friend!” he said within his» self, thus sapostrophising Obsistian Ashton, “I shall find you caught in the trap as sure es 8 gun! -—-but hke « true lover of romaace, you have too much pluck to roar oat and thus betray everp- thing. Or perhaps you have managed to extzi- cate yourself,in, which case the teeth will show whether they bt home. But 5 am more inclined fo think T shall find you pinned. fast theae—enjoy- ing a miserable 271 CHAPTER LI. # REVELATION. Tus inadent of the man-trap remained enveloped ins degree of mystery with the gene- of the Earl's bouschold. His lordship said, a8 % ina cursory manner, that he supposed one. of the mast have set it under the im- ._preesion that there weve nocturne] intruders upon. the grounds; and he forbade any inquiries te be institated.. Malsepeace of course took very good jcare not to confess how far he had been instru- imental in the ignoble catastnophe: nor |did he think fit to mention the ciroumstance evert. jto Lord Osmond. The ander-gardener likewise martyrdom. In hie haste to ascertain the resulé of an ides | maintained the secret, in pursuance of the instruc- which he conceived to be one of the most brilliant that had ever entered his fertile brain, the Earl of Lascelles did not persue the tedious meander- ings of the gravel-walk which led towasds the | private door: but he cut acrose the graseplat—~ | reached the ev began working his [ amongst them. But all of a sud- | a te eee she grounds; for, was caught iz his own Nothing could execed the horrible exies and the piteeus lamentations which kept coming from the | lips of the wretehed old man. Lord Adolphus and seme of the men-servants rushed forth from the manson: othess followed with lights; and guided by Karl's yells, they speedily seached the spot w he was pinned fast. Lord Adolphus | was most painfully afflicted on beholding his father in a plight so uasceountable, buf which: for any one except a son would have had something so exccodingly ludicrous in it. Indeod, several of thet Makepeace could aly Bhe old lord was extricated from the trap and borne into the house: but om arriving there, he would not suffer any one to attend him in his | stood : tions he had received from the Earl: but the man could not for the life of him conceive how the trap _had become moved from ite original position. Whea, at the expization of a day or two, the nobleman was enabled .to leave his room agnin, he took an opportunity of questioning the undes- | gardener: and though the fellow swore lustily he ibad planted the trap against the private door, the Lascelles | Kazi could not help thinking the fellow had got it However, he was content to leave the matter as 36 for he had no inclination to make a disturb- ance relative to an incident that was so painfully ‘humiliating for himself. Yet bitter was his lord- .ship’s vexation that Christian Ashton should heve escaped him: for ié was his intention, if the youth ‘had been caught in the trap, 0 summon the whole bousehold to witness him im that position. The ‘tables had however been turned: it was the Earl himself who was caught—the Earl hmneelf likewise ‘whom that household, with bué three or four ex- ‘ceptions, had poured forth to eee. The ineident produced the most painfal impres- ‘sion upon the minds of the Countess, Adolphus, ‘and Isabella. Without being at all enabled to \nocount for it, they were nevertheless deeply ead- dressisg-room except Makepeace. The Countess; dened by the thought that the poor old nobleman aud Isabella, having netired to their own apart- ments te put off thas shawls, had not heard the | |had been. placed in that ree cement. Such ‘a atate of feelmg brings vividly up into people’s cries; and when they were informed of what had | minds the wrongs of which they have been guilty, happened, they sped te the door ef the Marl’s quite of rooms to make inquiries and rander any | meedful assistance. But Makepeace, opening the door a few inehem, assured them that his lordship | was by no means scrioudy hust—that ho desived | which an irzesistible to be left alone—and that they were on mo as- eount to send for medical assistance. lt was quite true that the old nobleman was not ‘or the duties which they have violated, in respect to the individual who is the object of ther com- }passion- The Countess, who hed many generous the deep depravity into | ber, was | had led more than ever aroused to the blackness of her turpitude: while Lord Osmond, despite his un- abating infatuation for his young end beautiful much injured—for the simple reason that the calf | mother-in-law, could no longer look in his father’s of his leg had been protested by a pretty consider- able piece of padding, which was artistically fixed inside his stocking so as to give that appearance of modelled robuatness which nature had denied to those spindle-shanks. And it was likewise on ac- count of thie succedaneous arrangement that the Kerl would not suffer any one to enter his dressing- Makepeace. room exeept face without feeling that his guilt towards that parent was of the darkest and deepest dye. As for Isabella,— she, with hep feelings far more keenly sensitive, and with her notions of propriety still more exquisitely delicate, was led painfully to reflect that as her uncle stood in the light of a parent, she had proved grievously disobedient te his wishes in stealthily meeting Christian Ashton. The result of ali these remorsefal feelings was that the Countess of Lascelles penned a note t0 Adolphus, beseeching and impicring that on some pretext he would withdraw from the mansion, and thet by means of a long separation they might (COL (C DOO CS (COL