The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 192: what you’re looking at

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

| @re comparatively poor—and the wealth which she altogether as you THE MYSTERIBS OF THE COURT. But it ie not so. We will if you please drop our fancied characters, and resume our real ones :—that | is to say, you shall be once more Lord Harold 181 to riak your life fer her, that you may clear ber path of an enemy; and if you accomplish this, you need not accept her love as a favour or her wealth as a Staunton, and I will be an unknown lady of high boon, but demand them both as a right.” rank and title who loves you, who demands a ser- | vide at your hand, and who offers you everything that woman can give as the recompense of that | whom all homage is due!” and as he thus service when it shall be accomplished. It is true, as I have been telling you, that I have an enemy— true that he must be removed from my path: but start not, Lord Harold Staunton—TI ask you not to commit the foal crime of murder! No—there are other means of accomplishing the aim. First of all, however, I ask that you will believe me when I assure you I have been insulted by a certain indi- vidual; and secondly, that I am serious in demand- ing his punishment at your hands.” “If you indeed be serious, most incomprehensible unknown,” replied Staunton, “I will undertake to punish any man who has insulted you.” “This is what I ire,” continued the lady. “You must seek out this individual to whom I allude; and without appearing to have any special purpose in view, or to be prompted by a pre- meditated design, you must provoke him to a quarrel —level some insalt at him—and then——Yor I un- derstand that with the pistol no men in England can outvie Lord Harold Staunton———” “ Bat you are not serious——you cannot be serious!” ejaculated the young nobleman, who was not so thoroughly depraved as to listen without emotion to this murderous project. “If it were to inflict per- sonal chastisement upon the individual to whom you ere alluding, I should not hesitate———” “ And would not that inevitably lead to a duel ?” eaked the lady. “True!” ejaculated Staunton: then in a slow and deliberate manner he said, “ But to seek in cold blood a dispute with some one who has never injured me” “Our interview may end here,” said the lady curtly as she rose from her seat. “I have been mistaken in Lord Harold Staunton ; and I am sorry thes I should have given him the trouble to listen to me thus far———still more sorry,” she added in a murmuring voies, as if she were deeply moved, “TI yield—I consent—I am your devoted Cava- lier—and you are once again my Queen Isabella, to spoke, Lord Harold Staunten pressed her gloved hand to his lips. ‘“ Now, name to me this individual——” “ No—not to-night,” at once replied the lady. “I must leave youa few hours to think well over the matter. To-morrow, soon after nine o'clock, you shall receive the name of the individual in a letter. But I must exact from you, my own cava- lier, the most solemn and sacred promise that you will not breathe aught of all this to a single living soul, If by any accident you should suspect or discover who I am before the time comes when I may choose to reveal myself, you must still more religiously than ever keep the secret in your own breast. If you prove indiscreet I am certain to hear of it: if you breathe a single syllable in the ear of another, although you may exact an cath of inviolability from that other, yet shall I be certain to find out your imprudence—I will even call it your treachery. And in that case my love would tam to hatred; and instead of looking for a re- compense, you would have to beware of my vem geance! But on the other hand, if you prove faith- fal to your promise—if you kesp the secret as reli- giously as if it were one revealed from the dead— and if you serve me to the fullest extent, not de- viating one single inch fnom the course I have laid down, there is nothing you can ask of me that I shall not be prepared to grant.” Having thus spoken, the lady rose; and Lora Marold likewise quitted his seat. He would have detained her still longer — he would have be- sought and conjured her to throw off at once the mystery wherewith she had surrounded herself—but she took his arm, and in a firm though still in a low and disguishd voice, said, “Enough for the present! Let us now lounge forth again amonget the company.” They issued from the bowery alcove, and threading the whole range of state apartments, “ that I should have bestowed upon him my love!” | conversed upon indifferent topics. But there was “Stop one moment—do not let us part thus!” | exclaimed Harold, whose head was turning with | to a certain degree a restraint and embarrassment on the part of both; and the lady, appearing to feel the bewilderment of his ideas and the infatustion of | this, suddenly observed, “ Lord Harold, let us eepe- has senses. “ Fotgive me if I henitated: but all thie is eo singular—so romantic—indeel, it ap- pears to belong to another age and another coun- “* And yet it belongs to this age, to this country, and to the present moment,” rejoinod the lady, suffering herself to sink down again upon the sofa, mm compliance with the movement which Harold imparted to the pressure of his hand as he grasped : her own. “But in this age as well as in any other, and in this country too, the aspinng lover must often do something to win his beauteous mistress; | your mysterious unknown P” he asked. and I have assured you, though I myself say the words, that the lady m the present case is worth the | winning. Now listen to me for a minute longer. ‘You are gay, Lord Harold—and the love of a beautifal woman cannot be indifferent to you: you ' ean lavish mast bean object to you. You are asked ~~, @ » —E—eEa GP + + —_ oe ee « rate for the present. Remember your promiag: remember also that I love you!” She then quitted him abruptly, and mingling amongst the thickest of the multitude, was speedily lost to his view. He remained standing where she had left him for two or three minutes, wrapt up in profound thought, from which he was aroused hy being su—tenly caught by the arm. It was Lord Saxondale in his pasteboard armour who had thus rejoined him. “ Well, my dear Harold, how got you on with “Is she ; mysterious still? is she still unknown P and was it all a mere masq trick? Or are you really and truly blessed with the love of some lady whose beauty outehines her virtue? By heaven, though I cannot see your face, yet I can tell that you are not ought to be!” “ My dear Edmund, if I made a gesture of impa- AD ein COMME MOO (CO