The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 23: what you’re looking at

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

nnn Cn need ee i ope ® Se SY aD a ASSESS GED CED a> OD a a aD SE ya a a RSS-SSSSSSGPcbilery—eaniifi GG GED gfe —_ 10 THE MYSTEBIES OF THE COUBT. of her who had possessed his firet and only luve— the love of an entire life! And ashe reflected upos this image, and thought how time and affliction might have marred those lovely lmeamente, renéering them possossor prematurely old,—the tears trickled down the nobleman’s cheeks; and he wept—Oh! he wept as convulsively as a child! And was not he too changed? Would even the penetrating eyes of love,— if love she still cherished towards him—be enabled to discern in his altered most picturesque parte of Radnorshire. The site of tris habitation was upon an eminence: and a beauti- ful garden sloped gently down to e purling rivulet which formed its boundary. In the rear of the house there was a paddock, in whioh the deer dis- ported gaily, and where the swans floated upon « It was abont eleven o'clock in the forenoon, that the Marquis of Eagledean, having walked forth from Rhavadergwy, where he arrived on the pre- vious evening, approached this dwelling of which we have just spoken. His countenance expressed a mingled anxiety and seriousness. More than six- teen years had elapsed since he had seen Lady Ever- ton; and he was now about to present himself before her. He had learnt in the town that she lived in an almost total seclusion—that she was ex- evedingly charitable and devout—buat that it was generally reposted and believed in the neighbour- hood that her reason was affected. The Marquis had not chosen to appear too minute in his inquiries ; and therefore beyond these few particulars he. had learnt little or nothing. On reaching the vicinage of the habitation, he stopped short at a distance of about fifty yards, and gased upon it with the feeling we have above de- ecribed,—a feeling of mingled seriousness and anxisty. Yer upwards of sixteen years had elapsed sinte he had seen her—and she was then thirty | Marquis suddenly halted on perceiving her, he could ofage. She must therefore be now forty-six. ; not obtain even the slightest glimpee of that coua- an immense change have been accom, | tenancs; and yet he felt convinced that this was hed during this interval in her personal appear- | the Alexandrina of his enduring and faithful love! P-—@ © too all the more remarkable and | Yes—the figure was exactly of her stature: it was the greater, because it was not the lapse of | not bowed by ycars—it was still apright as in her would have effected it—care and | youthful days he had known it tobe. But it was ve combined to accomplish the | from an intuitive presentiment rather than from something profoundly sad—eome- | actual observation, tbat he experienced the convio- solemniy awful in the thoeght, that | tion that this was she whom ho sought. in a few minutes he would at a single; He remained where he was concealed behind the enabled to observe the full extent of that | hedge, hoping that she would approach near enough and to perceive how powerful had been the | on the other side for him to observe her attentively ravages of time and the desolating influences of ' and well, eo that whatever shock might be destined affliction. And then—gs he stood thus meditating | for him from her altered appearance should have ~back to the mind: of the Marquis of Eagledean | passed away ere he revealed himself to her. De- came the image of Alexandrina as she was when he | seunding the steps, she traversed a large grass plat had last seen her. Then she was in all the glorious : in front of (he mansion—end then slowly entered beauty of womanhood,—perfectly resembling that ' the gravel-walk which ran behind the hedge. Hoes it which he had so recently seen in his daughter | steps were deliberate: she advanced like one whe Elisabeth’s possession, and which was engraved | was all the time absorbed in profound thought, and from an original painted in 1828, when she was in | who took no notice of the trees, the flowers, and the her thirtieth year. Then her countenance was of a/| natural boauties by which she was surrounded, perfectly oval-shape, with a forehead of nubile | The sun was powerful—and she drew her veil com: height—a forehead, too, fair and pure as the chast- | pletaly over. her countenamce: so that as she ap- est marble of Paros: and the splendid faee wes | proached nearer to the spot where Lord Eagledean a a a rT a I handsome and courtly individual whe had the object of her worship in by-gone years? The quis indeed felt that the meeting which was about to take place, would be under very painfel circum stances. Wiping eway the tears from his cheeks, and subduing his emotions as well.as he was able, Lord EBagiedean advanced a little nearer to the dwelling and reached a hedge-row that bordered the garden on the side skirting the road along which he was walking. In a few moments he beheld a lady de- scending the steps of the front-door. She came forth slowly—looking neither to the right nor to the lefi—bat with her eyes bent downward, as if in deepest thought. She was dreseed in black; and a sable veil was thrown over her head—but not so as to conceal her features. From the point where the AS SS yt a fe eas ae, cs : E EF 18 E a6 Ta i it " gpon her back. ‘Thon the darkly pencilled brows | was little impaired by the lapse of time: it was not threw out in lovolier contrast the purity of those . emaciated—it was not reduced to leannese—on the temples on the upals of which they were set; and contrary, it presented all the fine contours of a the long ebon fringes of the eyes mitigated without more youthful period. Could thie lady indeed be subduing the lustre of the magnificent orbs them- she whom he had come to visit ? selves. Then, too, the lips from which hisown had: She passed by on the other side of the verdant so often culled ecstatic but guilty kisses, wore full barrier; and the Marquis strained his eyes to pene- and of the richest redness; and the low-bodied trate aleo through the thick folds of the verl: but dress, which she was wont to wear in compliance the attempt was vain—he eould not catch the slight- with the fashion of the age, afforded a glimpee of ' est glimpse of the countensnce thus hidden. She the well-proportioned bust. Such was the bright proceeded on towards the lower part of the garden; and beautiful image which was conjured up to the and Lord continued his way to the gate memory of the Marquis of Bagledean—the image which afforded admittance to the grounds. person one single lineament to remind her of the: eS TD TS a Ta DTS ti a SG re oS gy tc sr ett ede pes a e eS Ay 2 SC a SSO . eae C) CO IMULUG DOO CS (COL