The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 286: what you’re looking at

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

< ee —_ THE MYSTERIES. when the fashionable world abounds in heiresses amongst whom you might select and choose at will.”’ But the latter portion of this sentence was lost upon Arthur Eaton, who, anxious to perform what he considered to be @ duty, was already crossing the threshold of the library on his way to the parlour. CHAPTER LXXYVII. THE SISTERS, WueEn breakfast was over on the morning of which we are writing,—and when Mr. Clarendon had left his daughters together, as already described at the commencement of the preceding chapter,—Pauline took her sister’s hand and gazed so long and with a look so full of tenderness upon her countenance, that the latter suddenly felt assured either that something was amiss or that a revelation of importance was about to be made. “My dearest Pauline,” she exclaimed, “there is a peculiarity in your manner this morning——” “ Which alarms you, Octavia?” interrupted the younger sister, finishing the other’s sentence for her. * But tranquillise yourself ——” * Ah! then you have some evil tidings to commu- nicate, Pauline?” suddenly ejaculated Octavia, the colour disappearing from hercheeks. “Is it con- cerning yourself—or relative to me, my beloved sister? Speak—oh! speak quickly—and keep me not in suspense!” “ Hush!—not so loud!—we may be overheard,” said Pauline, endeavouring to calm her sister’s excite- ment: then, placing herself by Octavia’s side, she murmured in a tremulous tone, and taking her hand, “Tt almost breaks my heart to have anything dis- agreeable to unfold to you——” “My God! what do you mean?” demanded the elder Miss Clarendon, her anxiety and suspense now becoming utterly intolerable. “Oh! you are weep- ing, Pauline — you are weeping!’’ she exclaimed, throwing a look of wild excitement upon her sister: “the tears are raining down your cheeks—and it is for me that they fall! Tell me—tell me, dear Pauline —what has happened 2” “J conjure you to tranquillise yourself, Octavia,” said Pauline, embracing her sister tenderly. “ You know how devotedly I love you—how much I would undergo to save you a single pang——”’ “ And it is the same with me, Pauline,” interrupted Octavia. “ Feeling our motherless condition, we have ever loved each other with the fondest and most tender aflection: and it is now by this affection—by this love, Pauline, that I conjure you to relieve me from suspense——” “JT will—l will,” exclaimed the younger sister, whose cheeks were flushed with grief, as those of Octavia were pale with apprehension. “ You believed that I went to the Opera last night: and it was not so.” “Then whither did you go?” inquired Octavia, amazement for an instant absorbing the intensity of her excitement: and she fixed her magnificent blue eyes upon Pauline’s countenance. “There was a grand entertainment at Carlton House last evening,’ began the younger Miss Cla- rendon; “and —~~’ 27] “ And you obtained an introduction thither?” ex: claimed Octavia, a terrible tremor now coming over her, at the same time that an awful suspicion of the truth swept in upon ker startled soul. “ Yes—I went to Carlton House,” continued Pauline: “determined to clear up the dreadful mystery And, Oh! my beloved sister— my wronged, Jost, betrayed Octavia —_~-” But, suffocated by her grief, Pauline stopped short; and, throwing herself upon her sister’s neck, she wept convulsively. “T understand it all_—-My God! I understand it all!’ murmured Octavia, falling back upon the sofa, with her affectionate and kind-hearted sister clinging to her in the wildest paroxysm of grief. A minute passed—and no sound fell from Oc- tavia’s lips: motionless likewise was she. As the searing lightning darts vivid and sudden through the night of storm, and rain, and tempest— so, amidst the tumultuous anguish of Pauline’s heart, did the blasting thought that Octavia was dead flash across her imagination. Starting from the convulsive embrace in which she was holding her sister,—starting thence, we say, as if suddenly impelled away by an irresistible gal- vanic shock,—Pauline threw a terrified look on Octavia’s countenance. The unhappy young lady was not dead—nor even inaswoon: but she was stunned—stupified—para- lysed by the weight of ineffable misery. Spell-bound, as if under the incantation of some hellish spirit, was she! And all in a moment she had passed through the most torturing phase of her existence—she had en- dured the crucifixion of that indescribable anguish which accompanies the sudden annihilation of the heart’s fondest hopes—and she had as rapidly sunk into that species of stupor which is a palsy alike ol the heart and of the brain! Her eyes glared vacantly—her mouth was half- open—her bosom stood upheaved with the suspended breath. “Octavia—my sister—my beloved sister!” ex- claimed Pauline, wildly: “in thename of God, speak to me.” These words, uttered with all the passionate enthu- siasm of the young maiden’s fervent love and rending erief, seemed suddenly to break that spell which held Octavia in a waking, statue-like trance. Deep sighs of returning breath broke from her, convulsing her bosom fearfully; and as the blood flowed back into the veins, the excruciating sense of bitter, bitter anguish returned to the heart. Then the eyes, like two arteries of the soul suddenly opening, poured forth their pearly torrents; and the pent-up agonies of Octavia’s tremendous affliction found a vent affording that relief which ever follows tears, even in the midst of the direst woe that the human breast can possibly experience. And Pauline suffered her to weep uninterruptedly for many minutes. f ‘“T need not ask you to describe in words the terri- ble truth which my heart’s worst fears have already made me comprehend, alas! too well,” said the wretched Octavia, at length breaking the silence which prevailed: and, raising her tear-bedewed countenance towards Pauline’s, she added, in a low and searcely audible tone, “ I should have been better prepared for this cruel blow!” “ Yes, my beloved sister,” answered Pauline: “ for C@nnicloOolkKkS. (C(O)