The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 50: what you’re looking at

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

32 THE COURT OF LONDON dream which must inevitably have a waking? Your husband — ”’ ‘“‘ Oh, let us not talk of him,’’ exclaimed the countess, with a movement of impatience. ‘“ Ever since I possessed your love, Gustavus, I have experienced feelings amounting almost to a loathing and a bitter aversion in respect to him.” ‘‘T can well understand those emotions, sweet Eleanor,”’ answered the wily criminal; ‘‘ but you must pardon me if I persist in speaking of the earl for a few moments. Oh, cannot you guess what I mean? Can you not divine that I allude to the possibility of our love being discovered? Each day, each hour we become less guarded. Already has that possibility amounted to a probability, and in another week or ten days it will be an inevitable certainty. Will not the time come then, my ever dear Eleanor, when we must look all this in the face and determine how to meet the emergency? And will it not be better to find ourselves prepared how to act, instead of being left to the irresolution which invariably accompanies the excitement and the con- fusion of a sudden discovery? Nay, more, would it not be even preferable to anticipate the catastrophe? ”’ “To what do you allude? What do you mean?” de- manded the countess, now for the first time awakening somewhat from her delicious dreams of bliss, and starting back almost in affright from the precipice on which she found herself standing. ‘‘ You have some plan in your mind, some project, Gustavus — ”’ ) ‘Hear me calmly, my love,” interrupted Ramsey, again lavishing upon the charming patrician lady the most tender and ardent caresses, so that the cheek which rested against his own glowed with animation, and the eyes which looked up into his were filled with a lustrous languor, melting yet full of fire. ‘‘ I beseech and implore you to contemplate, dear Eleanor, the results of a discovery,’ he continued. ‘‘ My ignominious expulsion from the house would be the first step taken by your enraged husband, and who knows but that he might sacrifice you to his fury? Then, oh, then, what would become of me? I should destroy myself, and our love would terminate as fatally as our deaths would be premature.” “Alas! alas! there is indeed much truth in this pro- phetic picture which you have drawn, Gustavus,” exclaimed comnmiclooolks CO