The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 211: what you’re looking at

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

CONTINUATION OF THE MYSTERIES 189 through his own regular banker, but through the London agent of the Canterbury bank. It was very shortly after he had written the letter just referred to, in reply to the Canterbury banker’s communi- cation, that Lady Malvern died, after a very brief illness; and although the same reasons now no longer existed for maintaining all the precautions so long persevered in, Sir Archibald nevertheless made no change in the plan of transmitting the money, simply because it was a convenient one and had grown habitual. Eighteen months more passed, and in the month of June, 1814, he himself met his death in the bathroom at the Blackheath villa, while engaged in his intrigue with Lady Ernestina Dysart. As a matter of course the next bill, sent by Clara and Louisa to London through the Canterbury bank, was returned unpaid, and the letters of advice addressed as usual to Mr. Beckford remained unnoticed. They lay at the tradesman’s shop where the postman was wont to deliver them, and the tradesman himself, not dreaming of the horrible catastrophe in which Sir Archibald’s life had closed, kept them, in the hope that he would call for them. The Canterbury banker wrote to his London agent to make inquiries, but the latter could learn nothing, and, by some oversight, neglected to inform his Canterbury correspondent of the fruitless result of his inquiries. Then was it that, failing to obtain any satisfactory in- telligence from London, the two young ladies held a long deliberation together, the result of which was Clara’s memo- rable journey to the metropolis. On arriving in London, in the middle of July, 1814, Clara at once proceeded to No. 20, Hanover Square, and to her astonishment she learned that no such person as Mr. Beckford resided at the mansion, that he was not even known there, nor, indeed, did any person of that name dwell in the neighbourhood. Of course the name of Sir Archibald Malvern was altogether strange and unknown to Clara, and she was alike bewildered and dismayed. She asked to see Mr. Valentine, but from him she obtained no satisfactory information. Nevertheless, though so deeply absorbed in his own sorrows, arising from the then very recent and mysterious disappearance of Sir Archibald, he was inspired, not with a feeling of love and admiration for the beautiful girl, but with a sentiment of (CS) nn) GDoOOo <Si nin