The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 274: what you’re looking at

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

252 THE COURT OF LONDON joiced he was to find a marriage relation in so excellent, amiable, and generous-hearted a young man as Valentine Malvern. He went on to say that he could without much regret abandon his high position at court, and devote himself thenceforth to the cultivation of domestic bliss in the society of Venetia. He declared that, for his part, he would strive to his utmost to fling a veil over all that. was past, so that no unpleasant memories should interfere to mar their future happiness. He emphatically promised that never would he make Venetia’s bygone frailties a subject of reproach to her, inasmuch as he himself was a. willing accomplice in what: had occurred, and had profited thereby. He dwelt at con- siderable length upon those scenes of tenderness, contrition, and remorse which had episodically marked their career of brilliant dissipation, and to which Venetia herself had touchingly alluded in her letters. He said even at the time when those scenes occurred he had experienced a sort of presentiment that they were harbingers of future reforma- tion, and he instanced them as proofs that however warped the good principles of the heart might become by external influences and surrounding circumstances, yet that no heart. could be wholly lost when it was accessible to the better feelings of human nature. In a postscript he added that: Valentine Malvern had behaved toward him with the utmost liberality, having advanced him twenty thousand pounds. to settle all his liabilities and enable him to quit his post with honour and credit to himself; and he concluded by observing that so soon as these debts were liquidated and. the business of his department as lord steward of the prince. regent’s household could be properly wound up, which would be in the course of a few days, he would repair to Canterbury to rejoin his wife and to be presented to her sister and aunt. Altogether Lord Sackville’s letter was one that gave sincere pleasure to Venetia, and likewise to the gentle Louisa, making the latter think much better of her noble brother-in-law than even Venetia’s representations had previously done. Nor less was Miss Stanley herself well pleased with the correspondence of Lord Sackville and Sir Valentine Malvern, and most affectionately did she embrace her elder niece when she found her so determined in rejecting the advice of Miss Bathurst and remaining firm against the entreaties of the prince regent. comicloooks (C©) im