The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 141: what you’re looking at

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

NATURE’S BETTER FEELINGS 123 ‘You are resolved to do this? ”’ “JT am fully resolved. Even if my own heart had not suggested the determination, your pleadings relative to that amiable girl would have been sufficient.’ ‘““ Now go, then,’’ said Venetia. ‘‘ You are bent upon so excellent an errand that it is a sin to detain you here. Besides, without knowing Ariadne, I nevertheless entertain the belief, considering all that has taken place between you, that she must love you. A young girl, whose heart was previously disengaged, could not become with impunity the heroine of so many wildly romantic adventures as those in which she figured with you as the hero. For you remember that you told me everything relative to the incidents at the hut near Shooter’s Hill, and also your rescuing her from your burning house — But go; I will not detain you.” ‘‘ Farewell for the present,’ said the baronet, taking Venetia’s hand, which he once more pressed cordially. “Farewell, and may all happiness attend you,” she answered; and they separated, with merely this clasping of the hand, and with no more embracings. The scene had a most beneficial influence upon Venetia’s mind. Following so closely upon her interview with Sir Valentine Malvern, it was chastening and salutary. It touched many of those better feelings of her nature which had long slumbered in the depths of her soul, but were not alto- gether destroyed. She felt, too, that she had behaved well in the counsel which she had given Sir Douglas Huntingdon, and she was satisfied with herself. Wishing to commune with her thoughts in perfect freedom from the chances of interruption, she descended from the drawing-room and passed into the garden belonging to the palace. She entered upon the terrace to which Sir Douglas had alluded during his visit, and leaning over the slight iron railing which fenced it, she looked down upon a charm- ing parterre of flowers beneath. With her eyes fixed upon them, she grew pensive, and yet no shade of mournfulness was upon her features. She thought how pleasant a thing it was to be beautiful and to afford pleasure by the existence of such beauty; and she went on to reflect how loathsome would be those flowers if their lovely petals were to distil poison instead of honey. Then she said to herself, ‘‘ And I, too, am beautiful. But, oh, how happy should I be if my (C(O) nn) GDoOo “Si in