The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 295: what you’re looking at

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

982 THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. was rising from the card-tables to make room for Horace, who accordingly sat down to take a hand in the game; and Venetia now therefore found a speedy opportunity of thrusting one of the notes into the hand of the Earl of Curzon. This ma- nosuvre was of course unperceived by everybody else; and the Earl, after flinging a look expressive of fervid gratitude upon her ladyship, quitted the room. In a few minutes he returned; and she read in his looks the ineffable delight which filled his soul. She accordingly understood full well that he had sought an opportunity to read her billet, and that he could know not a greater happiness than that of complying with its contents. In a short time Sir Douglas Huntingdon rose from the table, declaring that “he was in no Sumour to play at cards to-night;”—and the Prince Regent accordingly desired the Earl of Curzon to join the whist party again. To this request, which was a command when coming from Royalty, the nobleman immediately yielded; and Sir Douglas went and placed himself by the side of Venetia, who had taken a chair at some little distance. Watching her opportunity, when the card- players were most intent on their game, Lady Sackville slipped the other note into the baronet’s hand ;—and soon afterwards, it being now past midnight, she retired to her own chamber. - CHAPTER LXXV. THE BOUDOIZ. On thus retiring to her elegant boudoir, Venetia neither rang immediately for her maid to help her to lay aside her apparel, nor did she commence her night-toilette alone: but flinging herself on the sofa near the fire, she gave way to her reflec- tions. A. deep melancholy crept over her—and tears even stole forth upon her long dark lashes: then, as if it were a positive luxury to escape from the holiowness, the falsity, and the demoralization of a Court. life even for a few minutes, and to indulge in the unrestrained thought which the solitude of her own chamber permitted, she murmured audibly, “Yes—let me weep—let me weep |” And Venetia wept—not violently, like the rains pouring forth from an angry heaven to beat down the fairest flowers and crush the sweetest buds of pro- mise—but softly and gently, like the April showers descending with a genial influence to give fresh- ness to nature’s expanding verdure in garden, grove, and field. Thus did Venetia’s tears fertilize as it were her memory and her heart for the time being ;—and all the tenderest recollections that the former cherished, and all the sweetest feelings of woman’s nature which the latter harboured, were revived into freshness and wooed into bloom by the gentle shower that fell from the deep bine heaven of her eyes. Presently she rose from the sofa—passed behind a low screen which partitioned off one corner of the elegantly furnished boudoir—and opened a splendid bureau or cabinet made of ebony inlaid with mother-of-pearl. Thence she took forth her {ewel-box: but her eyes shone not with pleasure Sad at the view of the flashing gems which the box contained. No: for these she recked not now— and the object of her search was nothing more than a small packet of letters tied round with a simple white riband. Returning to her seat upon the sofa, Venetia began to examine these letters, which were all written in the same hand—and this hand was a beautiful female one, closely resembling her own fluid and elegant writing. | But as she ran her eyes over certain passages in | that correspondence, the tears rained down her cheeks; and at length she wept so copiously that through the half blinding floods she beheld the paper and the writing on it as throngh a mist. | But this outpouring of her heart's long pent-up feelings proved an immense relief—an incalculable solace: and wiping from her eyes the last pearl- drops which hung upon the long, dark, softly curved lashes, she tied up the packet of letters with the white riband and restored them to the jewel-box. Then, having consigned the box itself to the secure keeping of the ebony-cabinet, she rang the bell for Jessica. The summons was not answered with the abi- gail’s wonted promptitude—and after allowing three or four minutes’ license, Venetia rang again. This time the summons was speedily responded to ;—-and Jessica came hurrying into the boudoir, with an apology and an explanation upon her lips for the previous neglect and delay. “{ beg your ladyship’s pardon most sincerely,” she said: “but I was busily engaged at the mo- ment yonr ladyship’s bell rang the first time, in seeing that the spare bed-room was put into order——” “The spare bed-room!” ejaculated Venetia, affecting surprise. “Yes, my lady,” returned Jessica: “it appears that one of the guests in the saloon has taken the least drop too much——”, ‘Ah! indeed,” said Venetia. that has thus forgotten himself?” “J don’t know which of the guests it is, my lady,” replied Jessica: “ indeed, I didn’t hear his name mentioned at all. My lord,” she continued, alluding to Horace, “came out and gave the hurried order that the spare bed-room was to be got ready immediately—and that was the reason I did not fly to answer your ladyship’s bell when it rang the first time.” “I am not angry, Jessica,” said Venetia, smiling. “And while I think of it, I may as well observe that as I do not feel very well to-night, I shall per- haps take breakfast in bed in the morning. At all events you need not come to me until I ring.® ‘¢ Very good, my lady,” observed Jessica, as she combed out Venetia’s magnificent auburn hair, which was glossy and smooth as velvet, and shin. ing as dark gold—so luxuriant that it could be spread like a veil all over her shoulders and her basom—and so long that it reached far below her waist. “ And you will tell the footman in the morning,” continued Venetia, “in case I should forget to mention it again, that any one who calls at eleven o'clock in the forenoon punctually is to be shown straight up hither—as I expect some one on business of iuzportance.” “Your ladyship’s commands shall be attended to,” said Jessica. “ And who is i¢ . GOnMGOOOKS CO