The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 378: what you’re looking at

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

LL LL CE AE tt SSE EN tt THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. 365 then tripping lightly into the carriage, she: was whirled away to Grosvenor Street. Inthe meantime the real Countess of Curzon, completely disguised in Gertrude's apparel—wear- ing the ample cloak and the thick veil of that com- plaisant lady’s-maid—descended the private stair- case, and emerged by the side-door into the bye- street, at the corner of which Mr. Emmerson was waiting with a hackney-coach. Into the vehicle they got, and were driven as far as Oxford Street, where they alighted; and thence they proceeded on foot to Mrs. Gale’s fashionable house of infamy in Soho Square. CHAPTER XCVI. THE LADY’S-MAIO. THe carriage in which Gertrude was seated, arrived in a few minutes at Curzon House, Grosvenor Street. The watchfal hall-porter, on the alert for his noble mistress’s return, imme- diately opened the front door; and Gertrude, with the cloak-hood drawn over her countenance, issued from the carriage, ascended the stone steps in front of the mansion, and was passing rapidly through the hall towards the staircase, when the hall-porter said, “Please your ladyship, my lord has come back.” If death were really a phantom that appeared to those whom it was about to bear away from the realms of earth, then not even the presence of the’ grim destroyer suddenly starting up before the young lady’s-maid, would have caused her so mor- tal a terror as this announcement which the porter made. It struck upon her brain like the blow of a hammer—pierced her heart with the pang of a fiery arrow—and then the next moment gent en ice-chill quivering through her entire frame. Her feet suddealy appeared to become heavy as lead, and refused to perform their office. As one who in a night-mare seeks to fly from some hideons object, but fancies that he has not the power to drag his limbs aloog, so was it with Gertrude. But stil], while thus transfixed to the spot, and leaning against the hall-table to prevent herself from falling, she tenaciously kept the ermine hood closed over her countenance. The hall-porter, being overcome with drowsi- ness, had hurried away into the side-room where he slept: and thus he did not observe that his announcement of the Earl's return had produced any extraordinary effect upon her whom he of course believed to be the Countess herself, But the Earl, who had heard the carriage stop and the front door open, new issued forth from the dining-room where he had been sitting; and the sudden appearance of the nobleman startled Gertrude into new life, and not only relieved her feet from the leaden sensation that had paralysed their power, but gave to them the fleetest wings. “* Well, Editha,” said the Earl, as he issued from the dining-room; “not a word of welcome ?—not a syllable of any kind? Not even a look of recog- nition ?” But his lordship suddenly stopped short in min- gied astonishment and dismay: for Gertrude flew rather than walked towards the stairs, up which she bounded with such a marvellous agility that she was out of sight in a moment. ~ wo “ Perdition!” exclaimed the Earl of Curzon, a whole hurricane of suspicions sweeping through his brain: and away in pursuit of the fugitive did he rush. As ho was half-way up the stairs he heard a door closed violently and locked as suddenly up above. Conjecturing that it was the door of his wife's boudoir, he hastened thither—and, as he expected, found it fast. “Editha, open this door—I insist upon it!” he said, with his lips at the keyhole so as to speak only in a whisper that might not be overheard by any of the other members of the household. No answer was returned—and the Earl spoke not only louder, but in a more menacing tone. Still there was no response. The Earl's suspicions be- came a thousand times more poignant, though not more definite: at all events he could conjecture nothing but that there must have been a lover con- cealed in his wife’s boudoir, and that in a sudden panic-terror she had rushed up to screen him. He accordingly threatened to force the door unless it were immediately unlocked. Gertrude, half-wild with alarm, saw that another moment's delay would produce a fearful scandal throughont the house: and she therefore unlocked. the door. She had thrown off the ermine cloak, bat still remained in the ball costume. Pale as death—her half-exposed bosom heaving convul- sively, and her hands joined in entreaty—she fell upon her knees as the Karl entered the boudoir. “ Heavens! what is the meaning of this?” he exclaimed, as he at once recognised the beautiful lady’s-maid. But Gertrade could give no response : the trath she dared not tell—and no falsehood came ready- made to her lips in that moment of indescribable terror. Speechless therefore did she remain, but gazing up at her astounded and bewildered master with so frightened and deprecating a regard that it showed she expected little meroy at his hands. The Earl of Curzon closed the door of the bou- doir, and leaning back against it, gazed down in speechless astonishment upon the kneeling girl. There she was—clad in the splendid raiment of her mistress, aud with Editha’s pearls, too, on her hair and round her neck! Yes—and she had re- turned home muffled up in Editha’s own ormine cloak! But it was impossible that she could have personated the Countess at Lady Lechmere's grand entertainment: she must have assumed that dress after her mistress had figured in it at the ball, and she mast have come home thus disguised in the carriage in order to afford Editha aa op- portunity of remaining out elsewhere ! Such were the Eari’s reflections. Yes—he saw it all: the manoeuvre was palpable enough! And now, too, did a cloud of recollections gush in unto his mind, and a light simultaneously broke upon them, clearing up all that was mysterious therein before. The incidents of that night when for the first time he suspected his wife’s fidelity, all sprang up as vividly to his mind’s eye as if they were just being enacted over again! And what were the incidents of that memorable night? Be it remembered that on the occasion to which we must thus retrospect, the Earl of Curzon had entered a hackney-coach and planted himsclf immediately opposite his own mansivn, in order to wateh Editha’s movements, and that he saw a female ogg o | EOMIEHOOOKS. conn