The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 300: what you’re looking at

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

TOO LATE 265 hope was building on the unstable sand that it mistook for a firm rock. Oh, unhappy, doomed family! Foster knocked at the door, and immediately afterward his ear caught the rustling of dresses and the rapid tread of light feet in the hall within. The door was opened hastily, anxious voices welcomed him, and in the same breath in- quired what news he had brought; and he remained stand- ing motionless on the threshold, and spoke no word. For before him were his wife and daughter, the two beings whom he loved so well, and to save whose hearts a pang he would cheerfully lay down his existence, — ay, and smile in the midst of that self-martyrdom! The light of the hall lamp fell upon his countenance, and they saw that it spoke terrible things. Then they knew the worst. Now, had he entered in an excited manner and at once proclaimed the full extent of his misery, — which was also their misery, — they would doubtless have burst into a violent ebullition of grief. But when they saw that he, the husband and the father, was, as it were, stunned and stupefied by the immensity of the sorrow that weighed upon him, they instantly revealed themselves in the true nature of woman — blessed woman!— and became comforters and consolers. “Dearest, dearest husband,’ murmured the wife, en- deavouring to smile, “all may not be as bad as you apprehend.”’ ‘“ Beloved father,’’? whispered the daughter, succeeding in her attempt to smile, but it was through glistening tears, “you have given me a good education, I possess accom- plishments, and I can work to maintain us all.” Then the full tide of ineffable emotions rushed to the heart of the ruined merchant, who was so tenderly adjured by a wife and so affectionately addressed by a daughter; and, entering the house, he folded them both in his embrace, and wept over them plenteously. But such was the state of his mind that those tears gave him no real relief; they only forced his sorrow to take, as it were, a new phase, for, inasmuch as he had been stupefied and stunned by its weight before, he was now writhing with an anguish that penetrated into the lowest confines of his being. Even though smiles had expanded over him like sunlight, they (C(O) anil LOO) Sa!