The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 277: what you’re looking at

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264 THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. “ Yes,” responded Leveson: “and ralying upon the accufacy of your Excellency’s information, I have brought a certain person with me whom I wish to become a spectatress of her beloved Joce- lyn in the arms of the seductive Julia.” “Ah!” ejaculated the Prefect: “is it possible that you have caused Miss Louisa Stanley to,come all the way from England to view her lover's infi- delity ?—supposing that such infidelity shall really take place.” “And wherefore not kill two birds with one stone?” said the Marquis, with a knowing look. “ The opportunity was too good to be lost—and I accordingly availed myself of it.” “Tis an admirable stroke of policy !"" exclaimed Jales Martignac. ‘“ Yes—an admirable stroke of policy if your lordship be indeed anxious to break uff the contemplated match between Louisa Stan- ley and this Jocelyn. And, by the bye, since I have heard that this Louisa is so beautiful,’ con- tinued the vain yourlg Frenchman, with a self- sufficient air, “ perhaps your Jordship would afford me an opportunity of making myself agreeable to her: for I should really like to have an English mistress.” “I am sorry that I cannot gratify you in this r.spect,” retarned the Marquis of Leveson, smiling: “ but the fact is that Louisa Stanley is such a per- fect angel of beauty I intend to try my own for- tune with her first."’ “But where ia she ?” inguired the Prefect. “Ono leaving the ambazsador’s just now,” re- sponded the Marquis, “I drove round to the hotel where she is staying with me, and brought her hither in my carriage. She is now in the ante- rooMn————" “And Mary Owen, who was staying with her at Canterbury 2 said the Prefect. “Ts stil remaining there,’ answered Leveson, “in order to take care of Louisa’s sick aunt during her absence. Mary is harmless enough while thus employed, and while thus buried in that seclusion. But let us now take a peep into Jocelyn’s chamber,” added the Marquis, turning bis eyes upon the Pre- fect as he rose from his seat. “1 am at your service, wy lord,” said that func- tionary, “Gentlemen, you must excuse us for a few minuies—we cannot take so large a party with us, eapecially as it appears there is a young Jady to ac- company us.” The Marquis of Leveson and the Prefect, now quitting the saloon together, passed into the ante- room where Louisa Stanley was waiting. Her form was enveloped in an ample cloak; and a large bon- net, of the Swiss shepherdese-hat style then in vogue, shaded her features. But at the first glance which the Prefect threw upon her, he was indeed struck by the extraordinary beauty of her counte- nance—although the pallor of grief and the restless expression of acute suspense were upon every feature. Nor less was he enabled to remark that the very drapery which concealed her figure, also developed its matchless symmetry: and beau- tiful as the Prefect had fancied Julia Owen to be when he saw her on the day she was in- troduced to the Prefecture, he was now instan- taneously struck with the fact that Aer charms were thrown completely into the shade when com- pared with the transcendent Joveliness of Louisa Stanley. The theught therefore traversed the Prefect’s brain, that it would really after all be buf a little matter of wonder, if the mere image of the pure-minded, innocent, and angelic Louisa should preserve Jocelyn’s fidelity immaculate and intact against all the seductive wiles and wanton fascina- tions of Julia Owen. “This gentlemen, Miss Stanley,” said the Marquis of Leveson, introducing the French official to the young lady, “is his Excellency the Prefect of Po- lice: and he will now explain to you—painful though the subject must be—that the individual whom you have known and unfortunately learnt to love as Jocelyn Loftus, has been incarcerated in the Prefecture on account of his grievuns immo- ralities and wild excesses.” “Qh! heavens, if this be indeed true!" ex- claimed Louisa, clasping her hands and bursting into tears: but almost instantly wiping away those crystal drops of bitter, bitter anguish—and with a sudden resumption of an air of maiden dignity— she said, in a tone of forced calmness, “ But I am nerved to hear the worst, after all the terrible things that your lordship, with so much disin- terested and indeed paternal kindness, has told me |” While giving utterance to this latter portion of her sentence, with a frank and artless confidence in what she believed to be the good feeling of the Marquis of Leveson, the maiden fixed her blue eyes mournfully upon him: and then she turned those plaintive regards upon the Prefect, with a look that seemed to implore him to state all he knew at once and with as much brevity as pos- sible. “Young lady,” said the Prefect, now also think- ing it right to play the paternal, and therefore assuming an air and a tone which seemed to imply that he was performing a very painful task and accomplishing a most disagreeable duty,—% young lady,” he repeated, “it is better that you should hear at once the real character of him who has gained your affections, than that you should make so important a discovery when it has become tvo late to retreat from an unfortunate marriage. The plain trath is, that you have been wooed and your heart has been won by a mere adventurer living under a feigned name, and pursuing a ca- reer of reckless extravagance, deep dissipation, and inveterate profligacy. “O God! have mercy upon me,” murmured the unhappy Louisa: and then she compressed her lips forcibly to keep back the scream that rose up from her anguished heart to the very tip of her tongue. “But pray go on, sir—go on,” she cried, with nervous trepidation, as she once more wrestled successfully against the harrowing poig- nancy of her feelings,—or rather fortified herself with the unnatural composure of despair. “It is too true, then, Miss Stanley,” said the Prefect, encouraged by the significant signs and nods which the Marquis gave him, unperceived by the unfortunate girl whom the two wretches were thus basely torturing, —“ it is too true that Jocelyn Loftus has conducted himself in such a manner since his arrival in Paris as to scandalize society ; and the strong arm of the law has been compelled to interfere to punish him for his excesses. Not that he has committed any positive crime; but his debaucheries, his seductions, and his moral offences have brought dishonour on the name of English. Sa =e ee TO aS, TT I ED, a - a ans eta GOnMGOOOKS CO