The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 246: what you’re looking at

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

224 THE COURT OF LONDON ised to overlook the past on those same terms. Whatever amount of ambition I may have once entertained has been more than gratified. I have shone in the sphere of fashion, I have been the star of courtly circles, and my soul is sated with the dissipations thereof. So far from experiencing a pang, it is with delight that I hail my emancipation from the golden chains in which my late position held me en- thralled. Farewell, then, for ever to that sphere of fashion! Farewell for ever to that courtly circle! I have every reason to believe that my husband, who, in sooth, possesses many excellent qualities, Louisa, will likewise be well pleased to retire into the comparative seclusion of domestic life. We possess rank, and a revenue which for all our purposes may be regarded as a handsome fortune. And now, too, that the past is known to my dear relatives, that I no longer harbour secrets which keep the soul in a constant tremor lest some accident should betray them, I feel happier than I have been for a long, long time past. Oh, Louisa, is not this a day that will be ever memorable in our existence? It is on this day that your sister has been restored to you, that I have brought a brother to embrace you, and that, all the mysteries of our birth being cleared up, we find that we have two other relatives in Mrs. Owen and Miss Lilian Halkin.” | ‘‘ Yes,” observed Louisa, in a low voice full of emotion, “it is indeed a memorable day. But it will not the less prove a happy one for me if you, dear Clara, will indeed consent to retire from the sphere of fashion and dwell henceforth in the midst of domestic enjoyments.”’ “ And you think,’ whispered Clara, in a subdued and tremulous tone, ‘‘ that the virtuous, the high-minded young man who is shortly coming to make you his wife will consent to acknowledge me as his sister? ”’ “Oh, can you for a moment doubt it?”’ asked Louisa, in a tone gently reproaching Clara for even having enter- tained such an apprehension. ‘‘T know he will do everything for your sake, Louisa,’’ rejoined Lady Sackville, ‘‘ and therefore, when you assure him of my good resolutions for the future, he will not only believe you, but will treat me with kindness. Oh, there is a secret that trembles upon my tongue, but I will not reveal it. No, it shall be for your lover himself to choose his own GOMGoIoOOo (CO in