The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 125: what you’re looking at

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

110 THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. which was at no very great distance. Saxondale now rested. For there was no other But as William Deveril entered the hall of a| direct male heiz to that title known to exist; and beautiful little villa which he thus occupicd in the | if Edmund died, the title would become extinct and neighbourhood of the Regent’s Park, a charming the estates would devolve to a very distant relative creature of angelic beauty came forth from the | owning a ducal rank, and in which the title of Saxon- parlour to welcome him, and even to chide him dale would consequently be merged and lost. We will onward with a lighter heart to his own residence, as the only prop upon which the proud title of affectionately for being so late. Who was this not now pause to describe all Lady Saxondale had | beautiful creature that thus showed herself so | suffered on perceiving the gradual development of anxious for his return, and whom he embraced so | Edmund’s evil qualities as he grew up: but we will fondly as he made some excuse for his lateness? | content ourselves with observing that if she could Ah! from this mystery we cannot at present draw | not love him, she nevertheless cherished him as the the veil—even though it were to relieve the reader | only hope of perpetuating the family into which she from uncertainty as to whether William Deveril | had married and of which she was so proud. had that day pledged an undivided love to Florina| ‘This was Lady Saxondale’s ambition! The same Staunton. explanations may likewise account for her apparently —_—— premature anxiety to make such matrimonial ar- rangements on behalf of Edmund, as would provide CHAPTER XXVI. | him with a wife the moment he should come of age. THE FABRICATION. Hence the selection of Lady Florina,—a highborn though portionless damsel, whose relations and friends NoruineG could exceed the rage and disappoint- | had been too willing toassent to her prospective saer- ment of Lady Saxondale at the rebuff she had ex- | fice to the sickly, ill-conditioned, and evil-minded perienced from William Deveril. We must inform | Lord Saxondale. It was now the aim of her ladyship’s the reader that from the very first moment he com- | ambition to see Edmund married and behold male menced giving lessons to the Miss Fareficlds, at | issue springing from the union, so that she might be Saxondale House, several months back, her ladyship | assured of the perpetuation of the race of Saxon- had conceived a strange and irresistible attachment | dale. With this ambition constituting as it were towards that handsome young man. At the begin- | the aim of her existence, it was not likely that such ning Lady Saxondale had endeavoured to put away a woman would be easily accessible to the more ten- this feeling, with as much calm confidence that she | der sentiment of love. She was too worldly-minded | would succeed in doing so as if she were divesting to be thus sensitive. But had she not passions ? herself of a garment which though fitting some- | Yes: but she had also the pride that enabled her to what tight she had no doubt of being able to lay control them. She had not remained virtuous for aside: but insensibly that attachment grew upon the love of virtue: but because she was too prudent her; and though she was long ere she would admit | and too cautious to endanger. her proud position in this circumstance to herself, yet she could not help | the world. She had not remained chaste through at last opening her eyes deliberately to the fact that any genuine sentiment of feminine purity; but be- she really loved William Deveril. | cause she did not choose to risk the consequences of It was perfectly true that Lady Saxondale an intrigue. ‘hus, when she had found her pas- struggled long and painfully against this growing sions rebelling, she had subdued them ; and when passion: true also that it acquired a power greater tempted by the overtures of the gallant and the than her own faculty of resistance. We may like- dissipated in the world of fashion, she had risen su- wise observe that she had spoken with equal truth perior to such temptations—not because she pos- when informing Deveril that she had never loved sessed a virtue that recoiled from them, but because before. The reader is well aware that she had not she was too proud to compromise herself by succumb- married old Lord Saxondale for love; and that ing to them. though she had been true and faithful to him—had! Such had been the history of Lady Saxondale’s treated him with kindness—and had therefore made life from the period of her husband’s death until him a good wife, she had never experienced for him that when she met William Deveril. For nineteen any sontiment beyond those of friendship and gra- years had she remained inaccessible to love or to titude. At his death, though left a young, beautiful, temptation: and now she not only experienced love, and rich widow, she had never thought of changing but invited temptation by becoming herself the her condition—simply because out of the many temptress! Severely and paintully, we repeat, had offers which she received, not one was made by any | she struggled against this passion which she felt for individual of a rank so much superior to her own as Deveril: but at length she found that it was con- to make her wish to aspire to it. As for love, she suming her. She had endeavoured to avoid meet- encountered no one capable of inspiring her with ing him when he came to the house to give lessons that sentiment. Thus remaining single, she had to her daughters ; but an irresistible impulse would pursued only one idea—and this was her ambition. urge her to the room where she might see him. She looked upon herself with pride and satisfaction She had struggled to banish his image from her as having been the means of perpetuating the race mind: as vainly might she have essayed to roll of Saxondale in a direct line from her husband, back with her hand the mighty volume of water and in having rescued the coronet and estates from which the Thames pours into the sea at the time of the grasp of a profligate and unprincipled man in its ebb, The strength of her mind gradually gave the person of Ralph Farefield. Her ambition had way in this one respect: namely, the irresistible therefore been, from the time of her husband’s passion she experienced for Deveril. She felt at death, to rear Edmund Saxondale—to watch over last that she must avow this love of her’s to him—if him with the most zealous care—and to cherish him such a passion deserved the name of love at alli ECOMMICLOOKS (€@)