The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 161: what you’re looking at

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

st, you will pass the matter over im silence—you will take no step that shall lead to farther inves tigations? Will you promise me this, doctor?” asked the lady. “I will—most faithfully and most readily,” re- plied the physician. “Is this all that you require? _—_____»—_——. Dr. Fernsy, with a glow of pleasure upon his counte- nance. “T have preserved them—I have amused myself —end I can assure you,” added the lady, with a sweet smile, “ that I have fulfilled the instructions with a success that you yourself, as my preceptor in | is this all that I can do?” the science, would have viewed with satisfaction. | “I have nothing more to ask,” rejomed the lady. Do you remember that one of those receipts was for | “ And now, Dr. Ferney,” she said, rising from her @ pecaliar compound fiaid which yourself had just | seat, “I must take my leave. But one word!’ she succeeded in discovering ?” exciaimed, as a sudden thought struck her. “Hf “ Yes—and the discovery of which Liebig has ”* che continued, in that winning way just claimed as his own,” added Dr. Ferney. “ But | which women know eo well how to adopt towards no matter—the credit was mine, if any there were. | those over whoee hearts their charms have power, You mean chloroform ?”’ “should we ever mect in the great world, it must “The same,” answered the lady. ‘Well, I now | be as simple acquaintances—almost as strangers come to the object of my present visit. A bottle of | and not a word from your lips will suffer others to fallen into the hands of persons whose desperate | ago-—much less for what purpose !” characters I have too much reason to know; andI| “Havel not already told you,” asked the doctor, dread lest the most fearful uses should be made of | ina mildly and mournfully reproachfal voice, “ that it. Therefore have I lost no time in coming to make | I would sooner die than do you an injury. Relative you acquainted with this circumstance. For to tell | to that purpose of which you speak, I have so fer you the truth, I feared that if such evil uses as I buried it in oblivion that it remains entombed at anticipate should be made of the fluid, and that you the bottom of my soul. Did the Inquisition exist heard of any such case, you might at once, ontheim- now, and rear ite hydra-head armed with all its pulse of the moment, declare that some years back tcrrors in the very heart of England, not even all you had communicated the secret to a lady, and: the tortures of the rack should drag forth that that from her only could the climination secret fromme. It is your’s—not mine.” ever communicate the secret to another-——” “Ah! I recollect,” exclaimed Dr. Ferney, “I eaid that inasmuch as you had taken so deep an interest in that discovery, it should remain sacred on your account; so that I might have the satis- faction of thinking to myself that there was at least one being in the world whose smile of approval had “It was because you spoke thus,” lady, “and because I read at the timo the generosity | which I possess in Conduit Street? And you re- and sincerity of your character, that I felt assured member too, that nucleus of a museum which I they were not idle words you had uttered. There- ' had formed, also in Islington—a small closet con- fore, when the phial of fluid was purloined from me taining a few curiosities, with difficulty purchased last night, I said to nyself, ‘If it should really be by the hard savings of those times’ Well, the the case that to me only in the world has Dr. Ferney little nucleus in the small closet has grown and entrusted his secret, I now stand s twofold risk. | expanded into a large collection, filling » suite of In the first place, should an evil use be made of the four chambers within these walls.” fluid by the hands into which it has fallen, and if| “Yes—lI will with pleasure visit your laboratory he comes to hear of it, he may proclaim to the and your museum,” returned the lady, who was world that from a certain lady could tho subtle evidently anxious ‘o render herself agreeable to the essence alone have been obtained. Or else, in the physician, as an additional inducement for him to second place, he will perhaps ascribe direct to me keep inviolable the several secrets with which he whatsoever crime may be perpetrated ; and it would | appeared to be entrusted. be terrible to suffer thus in the estimation of any; “Come then,” said Ferney: and taking a lamp one.’—These were the terms in which I reasoned to off his reading-desk, he led the way from the snyself ; and therefore, in anticipation of whatevever : study. may ensue from the loss of my phial of chloroform, Crossing a landing-place, the physician guided I resolved upon paying you this visit.” ‘the lady along a passage to a door which he threw “Iam glad—I am rejoiced,” replied the doctor, ' open; and she soon found herself in the laboratory. “that the incident has occurred, since it has pro- ' We need not pause to describe in detail the appear- eured me the happiness of your presence. But anco of this place: the imagination of our readers what wuuld you have me do? in what way can I can easily depict the shelves covered with jare and assist you? Speak—you can command me in all bottles duly labelled with the chemical hieroglyphics ings.” —the furnace in one corner—the alembics, retorta, “Should you hear of any case in which the vil- and vther implements which lay scattered about— laine who-have stolen the fluid make an evil use of the book-case containing sevcral curious volumes— COMME MOO (CO