The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 394: what you’re looking at

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

360 THE COURT OF LONDON by name,” was the response; “‘ and that name,”’ added the Gipsy, evidently endeavouring to smother a sigh, “ is, alas! too well known throughout the land.” ‘Singular being! what mean you?” demanded the Flower Girl. ‘‘ And wherefore do you interest yourself in me? Is it possible that you are the writer of — ”’ “That anonymous note which induced you to come hither, eh? ” said the Gipsy, a certain malignity penetrating through her tone and manner, and suddenly causing the Flower Girl to regard her with a less friendly interest than before. ‘‘ Well, and you have seen with your own eyes the truth of all I told you in that note? But you did wrong to accost him, after my positive injunctions to the contrary.” ‘There was a moment when I could not control my feelings,’ said the Flower Girl, now sighing profoundly at the painful recollections of all that had so recently taken place and which even now appeared to her in the light of a horrid dream, and not a reality that was patent and unde- niable. ‘‘ But wherefore did you enjoin me in that note not to accost him within these walls, but to deliberate calmly ere I took any step in consequence of his infidelity? Did you suppose that I possessed an almost superhuman power of control over my feelings? Or rather, let me ask wherefore you should have interfered in this matter at all? ”’ ‘“‘Those are my secrets, lady,’”’ said the Gipsy, assuming a tone of the profoundest mystery. ‘‘ And now one word of advice.” ‘“‘ Speak,” said the Flower Girl, with a cold and unac- countable shudder, for there was something implacable and even ferocious in the altered tone and manner of the Gipsy. ‘When a virtuous woman’s dignity is offended by a faithless lover,’”’ was the measured response of the latter, ‘““she does not write a long letter of mingled complaint, upbraiding, and reproach; but she pens a few laconic words, commanding him to seek her presence no more, and leaving him to calculate and weigh all the motives which have suggested a proceeding at once so dignified and so im- perious.” ‘You have told me nothing that my own feelings as an injured woman would not have suggested,’ said the Flower Girl. ‘‘ Have you aught more to observe, and shall I ever know who you are and what were your motives? ” COMIC OOO S CO im