The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 396: what you’re looking at

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

370 THE COURT OF LONDON “ Oh, my sisters, my dearest, dearest sisters! ” exclaimed the young damsel, giving back those fond caresses with an equal fondness. “ Come and sit down with us,” said Agatha, “ and tell us where you have been. It is so long since we saw you.” “Yes, come and sit down with us,” echoed Julia, “ and tell us where you have been. It is so long since we saw you.” ‘‘ Dearest sisters,’ answered Mary, almost blinded by her tears and suffocated with her sobs, ‘‘ here is our mother come to see you also.” “ Yes, my poor girls, it is I, your mother, your almost heart-broken mother!” exclaimed Mrs. Owen, rushing forward to embrace her two afflicted children. ‘ What, you our mother!” shrieked forth Agatha, her whole appearance changing with an awful suddenness, as if the spirit of a fiend had in a moment entered her frame. ‘‘ No, no, not you our mother! You are a demoness, a she- devil, an old witch, a vile, monstrous hag! I know you well! Avaunt! avaunt! ” “No, no, you are not our mother!” were the thrilling echoes that now rang piercingly from the frenzied Julia’s lips. ‘‘ You are a demoness, a she-devil, a hideous hag. Avaunt! I know you well! Avaunt! ”’ And then the two sisters, taking each other’s hand, stood side by side, as if in the reliance of mutual protection against. that mother whom they did not recognize, but whose pres- ence had thus so terribly excited them. As for Mrs. Owen herself, she covered her face with her hands, staggered back against the wall, and sobbed aloud, while poor Mary stood at a little distance, transfixed with horror and dismay. _ “ My dear young friends,” said Doctor Dupont, accosting Agatha and Julia, “‘ you have recognized your sister; are you not glad to see her? And will you not believe me when I assure you that the other lady is your mother? ” he added, very slowly, and earnestly watching the looks of his patients.. “Cur mother! —no, no!” again shrieked forth Agatha, all the frenzy of rage blazing up again in a moment. “I tell you she is not our mother! She is the old demoness who has. made us do everything that is wrong.” ‘Yes, the demoness who has made us do everything that is wrong,” were the terrible reverberations thrilling from Julia’s lips. comicloooks (C(O) nA