The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 120: what you’re looking at

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

=— —_—————— ———— Se OL rs THE -MYSTERTRS ee me — But mo—I dare not—I -_—_~-— would relieve my heart! dare not! Leave me!” “ And if I leave you thus, are we ever to meet again P” asked Deveril, profoundly afflicted. Florina hastily wiped away the tears from her eyes, and bending her looks upon the young man, she was about to put forth all the energics of maidon firmness and tell him that it were indeed better they sould part to meet no more, when all that firmness melted rapidly away as she gazed upon the exquisite beauty of Deveril’s countenance—a beauty which never had seemed more fascinating to her view than ut this moment when every feature expressed love, adoration, sorrow, and despair! “ Mr. Deveril,” she said, “I cannot give utter- ance to what I was about to say; for it was an in- junction that would have sealed my unhappiness.” ‘ And mine aisv, if it were to have bidden me leave you,” he immediately rejoined, his countenance hievhting up with the animation of hope and bliss. “Say, beautiful lady, has not everything which has ju t taken place gone too far to be recalled ?—have not secrets been revealed which may never be con- sisned back to oblivion P—and have not two hearts lifted the veil from their innermost sanctuaries? Oh, do not tell me that what is done you could wish to be undone? No—recall not a single gesture, nor a single look. To do so were to prove far more cruel than you are capable of proving: it would have been to lift me on angel-wings high above the common things of earth, merely to plunge me deep down into an abyss of darkness and despair !” William Deveril had spoken in that tone of mingled rapture, earnestness, hope, and suspense, which was full of love’s ineffable but varied reusic, and can be listened to by no young maiden with impunity: so that even if Florina had been far mors solemnly and sacredly pledged by vows of her owz to Edmund Saxondale than slre was, she weuld have forgotten all such plight and troth at hat instant, because her own feelings were stronger than herself. | “No,” she said, murmuringly, as if it were the silvery flow of a crystal streamlet that was waiting soft, spirit-voices upon its surface, “ I wish to recall ncthing—I do not now repent of what has just tuken place!” “Oh, then you love me ! you love me!” exclaimed Deveril, in a tone of swelling enthusiasm and gush- ing rapture; and again and again did he press to Lis lips the fair hand that was now completely abandoned to him. “But, ah! reflect, Lady Flo- rina!” he said, a cloud suddenly settling upon his countenance: “all the brilliant prospects of your life may be at stake! If you condescend to bestow your hand upon me, you become the bride of the humble and obscure artist —” *“Bat I become the bride of him whom I can love,” observed Florina, in a low soft voice, full of an ineffable sincerity. “And you will renounce the coronet of Saxon- dale for me?” asked Deveril, his cheeks glowing with rapture. “Were it a diadem, I would renounce it for you!” Fejoined the patrician maiden. “Oh! is it possible that such bliss is a reality P can it be otherwise than a dream ?” cried Deveril, once more falling upon his knees at the feet of Lady Florina: then as he gazed up into her countenance, LT OF THE COURT. 103 he said with a mingled earnestness and impassioned emotion, “If for my sake you consent to sacritice all those prospects which the world deems brilliant and dazzling,—if for the love of me, the humbie and obscure artist, you renounce that position which society considers so desirable, you lay me under an immensity of obligation which only can be repaid by a love so fond, so tender, and so faithful, that never did poet dream of such a love nor novelist depict it! But is this all that I can give in return for the vastness of the sacrifice which you will make for me? Yes—I can offer you no other riches than the wealth of a heart’s devotion—the opulence of feelings that shall have no other aim nor endeavour than to ensure your happiness—the treasure of an enthusiastic adoration of which thine image alone shall ever reign the idol! Such, Florina, is all that I can offer you—all that I can lay at your feet—in return for this love of your’s.” «And what more can I ask?” said the maiden, in gentle accents ana with tender looks, as she bent down towards her «neeling lover, so that her eyes looked into his own, and her balmy breath fanned his brows that were throbbing with the excitement of ineffable feelings. ‘‘You offer me everything calculated to ensure my happiness ; and the prompt- ings of my heart tell me that if others seek to con- trol my fate by wedding me to splendid misery and coronetted unhappiness, it is a duty I owe unto myself to accept the destiny which a higher power— I mean that of heaven—appears to throw in my way !” “Oh! every word that you speak, worshipped and adored Florina, convinces me of the depth of your love and assures me of its enduring con- stancy! This, this is happiness indeed!”—and as Deveril spoke he threw his arm round the snowy neck of the beauteous dam#€l, and drew down the countenance already so close to his own till their lips met: and as he still knelt at Florina’s feet, he thus culled the first kiss of the love which was now so fully revealed. “ Rise, rise,” said Florina, with murmuring tre- mulousness of tone; “rise, William—dearest Wil- liam !” He obeyed her—he rose from his kneeling pos- ture—he again seated himself by her side—but for some minutes his heart was too full to allow the utterance of another word. It was a sort of sub- dued ecstacy—a prolonged sensation of bliss, wherein his soul was steeped: his heart was bathing in a fount of elysian delight. The impression of that pure, chaste kiss was still upon his lips,—the voice which had just addressed him by his Christian name for the first time, was dwelling like a soft strain of delicious music in his ears,—and the image of her on whom he gazed in mute adoration, was reproduced in his heart, never to be effaced! He felt that whatever should betide him in this world, through whatever storms of adversity or tornadoes of misfortune he might be hurried,—to whatever distance circumstances might separate him from the presence of the idolized and adored one,—yet that still the sweets of that kiss would linger on his lips, the music of that voice would continue to float in his ears, and the image of that face of transcending beauty would remain indelibly impressed upun his soul. On the other hand, while ail these thoughts and Go JOO ‘S (CO)