The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 29: what you’re looking at

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

16 THE MYSTERING OP THE COURT. hineself to endure the excitement of his stirred-up , in happiness again: feelings. At length the door opened. Eagerly did | smiles which played u he glance towards it: but only the housekeeper appeared. Her countenance was beaming with satisfaction and joy; and the Marquis at least gathered thence the assurance that the glad tidings revealed to Lady Everton, had prodaced no evil effects. Mrs. Jameson beckoned him to follow; and she led the way towards a drawing-room, at the threshold of which she stopped abort for a moment. “ My lord,” she said, in a low whispering voice, “TY shall go no farther: you will enter there alone.” ° easayed to settle my thoughts on s complete resig- Thus speaking, she opened the door. Oh! at | mation to my present lot. Then again, I have that instant the Marquis of Eagledean felt himself | experienced young again——aye, felt as if twenty years had | and mournful apathy,—a sort of tomb-like sensation, been struck off the sum of his existence—feit as if | as if though alive, I was already beneath the namb- a new life were rejuvencscent in his veins! He | ing influence of death. Ah! that wae an awfal s rang forward—the door closed behind him—a cry | state of feeling : and yet taere was a depth of tran- uf joy reached his ears—a form flew to meet bim, quillity in it—en unnatural calm in which my senses quicker than he himself was advancing; and the | were steeped. Had I given way to outbursts of beloved one of other times—-the beloved one too of | anguish and all the wildness of a terrible excite- the present moment—was clasped in his arms, | ment, you would not have seen me as you see me Years of anguish—yeers of hopeless sorrow—years | now: you would have found me a haggard, of separation were all compensated for in these first | wretched, withered thing. But I abandoned my- few moments of eestatic joy. It may seom strange | self not to those torrents of feeling—those frenzied to speak thus of that old man of sixty and that | outbursts of emotion. Hope appeared to be dead woman of forty-six: but their hearts had becume | within me, save and except during thase occasional young again—their memories travelled backward to | intervals when the fanciful vagaries of which I have the joys and delights of by-gone times. Thus the | spoken, would rise up in my mind. But the general outpourings of their rapture were as fervid and as | tenour of my existence for some years past may be enthusiastic as if it were a meoting of two youthful | described as the long, long death of hope—that lovers. There was a whole world of blisa concen- | torpor of the senses which is experienced whgmrone trated in that first embrace a oy nae Hes ardent knows that there is naught left in the world to and ite: eestacy, its bliss and its intoxication, for | crave for, However, this day has suddenly changed those of advanced years as well as for the young. | all that!—it has given me back happiness—it has A few minutes afterwards we may behold them | filled me with new joy—it has lifted up my soul seated together upon a sofa, their hands locked in a | from the depths of the sepulchre where it was firm clasp—their looks rivetted upon each other. | benumbed—it bas inspired me with fresh vitality, Then the Marquis sew that Mrs. Jameson had | and with a renovated confidence in the world and spoken truly when she represented how compara- | in heaven !” tively slight was the alteration which had taken | And again, as she spoke, did Lady Everton lavish place in the appearance of Lady Everton. ‘ caressea upon the Marquis of Eegledean; and he Gradually s mournful festing stole into the beert of also felt that this was a day of indescribable happi- Lord ; and as a long-drawn sigh rose up nessforhim. They ant together for more than an to his lips and half found vent ere he could stifle hour, talking of their feelings rather than of the it, Lady Everton said in a low deep voice, “ Paton, careumstances which demanded their att¢htion: they there is yet a cloud upon your happiness.” j dwelt upon the emotions they experienced, and not “Do you not find me much Alexandrina | upon the plans which they bad to discuss and — Ob, very much changed?” he asked : do you not | execute. They spoke of Adolphus—of Elizabeth — see that I have grown old, while you have cecaped and of Frank; and the tender mother made the the ravages of time P” Marquis give her the most life-like description which “Hush, Paton—epeak not thus of yourself to | words could frame of the personal appearance of me,” said her ladyship, still in a soft voice, and looks , each af those beloved children of her’s. of ineffable tenderness. “I behold you now through ead ON: RY Gear Paton,” she said, at length the medium of a faithful memory; I behold you | suddenly recollecting that after all their discourse only in the light of that love which I have ever nothing was settled—nothing resslved upon, “we borne you, and which never has been impaired by | must think of the future as well as of the present circumstance or by time. If you find me less | and the past. You can fall well understand that I changed than you expected, I rejoice——Oh! I re- | yearn to fold these dear ones in my ermis—that this joice unfeignedly: for even now it is sweet to hear | solitude has suddenly become hateful te me—thet I the language of admiration from your lips.” long to fly hence end seck the spot where dwell the With these words Lady Everton threw her arms | objects of my love. Tell me, Paton—tell me,—when around the neck of the Marquis of Eagledcan, and you came bither this morning, had you any fixed embraced him with as much fervour—with as much | plan to propose? any project to suggest ?”’ fond admiration, as if a long, long interval of years; “My dear Alexandrina,” he answered, “can you hed not changed him nor mae him old. The | not perceive at a glance how much depended upoa sa.laces fled away from his countenanee—he smiled | yourself? You bid me telk to you of the future E CO IMULUG 5 DOO CS (COL