The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 223: what you’re looking at

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

WHO IS THE CULPRIT? 193 throbbing brows, therefore was it that for nearly a minute he remained absorbed in profound and painful thought. ‘You heard my last question, sir,’’ observed Mr. Coun- sellor Sharply, who soon grew impatient; ‘‘ may I request an answer to it? Or shall I repeat it for your behoof? It was whether the deceased William Dudley was known to be connected with any woman in whose breast he might have inspired feelings of a nature calculated to prompt her to the commission of this black crime.’ Eaton was about to reveal everything, when it. struck him that were he to tear away the veil which covered the past he would be devoting the name of Dudley to infamy and execration, and he would likewise be denouncing Fer- nanda to the whole world for crimes which he had forgiven, merely because he now suspected her of a new iniquity of which she might prove to be totally guiltless. And if thus denounced, she would be arrested at once, and he must appear against her, and, condemned as a prisoner, she would inevitably perish on the scaffold. Thus even if she should be proved innocent in respect to Dudley’s death, the revelation of the reasons which led him to suspect her of that crime would send her all the same to the gibbet; and this was what Eaton would not have happen for worlds. No, because he had seduced her, he had injured her cruelly at the beginning, he had goaded her, as it were, to desperation; because, also, he had pardoned her for what she had done to him, and she was now settled honourably and respectably in the world. These were the reasons wherefore he did not seek, and could never desire, to punish her for the past; and unless he were well assured that she was indeed guilty of a new crime, and this crime of the blackest dye, he would not take any measure that might tend to compromise her. Thus at the very instant when, in reply to Counsellor Sharp- ly’s reiterated question, he was about to reveal all those strange and terrible circumstances with which the reader is so well acquainted, a second thought sealed his lips; and he resolved to pause ere he adopted any step, which, if rashly and inconsiderately taken, might involve an unjust~ accusation against Fernanda for the present, but ruin her beyond all possibility of redemption for the past. His continued silence, and the effect produced upon his countenance and manner by the conflicting feelings and (GX ®) AMG 6)(0)©) So