The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 172: what you’re looking at

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

THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. guilt beneath the mask of hypocrisy. Even the comparatively pure mind, of Constance caught the poisonous infection arising from the same source ; and in the space of a brief half-hour those two sisters had become years older in the depravities of the imagination. Oh, wretched wretched Lady Saxondale! if you eould only have known how much of the evil seed 157 of costly gifts for the designing and fascinating Iimily Archer. Juliana therefore was alone in the drawing-room between five and six o’clock on that day of which we are writing; and what with the inspirations ot the novel she was reading, the glowing character of her own thoughts, and the influence of those reve- lations which had come to her ears in respect to her which is naturally implanted in frail human nature | mother, it was no wonder if she should at length had been all on a sudden made to shoot forth and | fall into the following train of reflections :— germinate with fearful rapidity, even almost to the | “ Assuredly I should become the laughing-stock of bearing of its kindred fruits, in the bosoms of your | the whole world,” she said to herself, as she laid daughters, you would have shrunk appalled from the | aside her book, “if I were to run away with Frank sa —_—__——_—__— « SE — startling fact that it was your doing. Medusa-head of a mother’s bad example will para- lyse and turn to rigid stone all the lively virtues and - healthy qualities of her children, Woa« unto thee. Lady Saxondale! aS CHAPTER XXXIV. THE MIRROR. For, Ob! the | Paton and marry him. Yes, for-no matter what the secret of his birth may really be, he is but a page after all; and if I wait till that mystery is cleared up with the hope that he may eventually prove to be the son of distinguished persons, I may wait long enough. LBesides, how is it possible to wait? I feel that this passion is devour‘ng me Those, by the bye, are the very words which I have just now read in the novel! How truly some authors do depict our feelings! It was all very well for me to declare to Constance yesterday that Axnout two hours later in the day, Juliana Fare- ficid, dressed for dinner in a costume that set off her finely developed charms to the utmost advantage, was half reclining upon a sofa in one of the drawing- | rooms, and whiling away the time with a volume of the last new novel. Little however of its contents | did the lady’s memory retain: for though she was reading of love there, she was thinking of love at the same time apart from the topic of the book. | Her ideas seemed to flow in two distinct channels,— one following the course of the glowing descriptions of love as dressed up by the novelist—the other pur- suing the raptures and blandishments of love as she herself felt and understood them. There was a heightened colour upon her cheeks— a dewy moisture upon her rich red lips — a melting languor in her fine dark eyes—a languor the sen- suousness of which was deepened by the half-closing of the lids, as if those eyes, faithfully reflecting the condition of the mind, were weighed down by the delicious thoughts that rested on her soul within. For the soul itself feels a kind of pleasurable op- pressiveness and the weight of a softly sensuous lan- guor when the imagination gives way to the rapt dreamings of love—even as the bee, which sips sweets frum every flower, is oppressed by the burden of the delicious food wherewith it is laden,—or as the breezes of an oriental clime become heavy with the rick perfumes and odours which they have accu- mulated while they wandered kissingly over the brightest and fairest flowers of the earth. © Juliana was aloneat the time in that room. Con- stance was in her own chamber, penning a response | to a billet which she had received from the Marquis de Villebelle, through the agency of the faithful Mary-Anne. Lady Saxondale was likewise in her own room, pondering upon her unpleasant interview with Mr. Gunthorpe, and revolving a thousand wild and desperate plans in her mind for the purpose of arresting the hostile proceedings menaced by that gentleman on the part of William Deveril. As for Lord Saxondale, ufter having returned home for an hour or two just to seeif there were any letters for him, hehad gone hack to the villa in the Seven Sisters’ Road, laden with new presents ard a fresh supply I gloricd in this love of mine, and that I should feel proud in becoming the wife of Francis Paton. Yes—but then I did not choose to acknowledge even to myself that there was any shame attached | to this love—any reason to blush for it! It was an attempt to blazon forth something that nevertheless sat upon the heart like a remorse. Wherefore should I not imitate my mother’s example? She would not marry William Deveril—but she A And then Juliana, not yet thoroughly depraved, checked the thought to which she was almost un- consciously giving expression in her musings; and returning to her book, she endeavoured to evade at least that portion of the ideas which had stolen upon her. But it was in vain: the idea was there—the seed had dropped upon a soil by no means unpre- pared to receive it—and although it might be covered up for a moment, it was nevertheless certain to take root—indeed all the more certain on that very ac- count. Presently the door opened, and Lady Saxondale entered the apartment. Juliana just lifted her eyes above her book to see who it was, and then went on reading without saying a word. In the same map ner her ladyship glanced towards the sofa to sve who was half reclining there; and likewise without speaking a word, she turned to the further ex- tremity of the spaciousroom. There was a mutual feeling of embarrassment and mistrust on the part of the mother and the elder daughter. Lady Saxon- dale knew that her tale concerning Deveril had not been believed by Juhana; and her guilty conscience therefore made hor think that the real truth of the transaction was suspected—for she was very far from entertaining an idea how completely it was known. On the other hand Juliana, boing as yet young in the ways of duplicity and deceit, was always feartul lest her mother’s eagle glance should detect her assion for tne page; and now that somewhat uaholy thoughts had arisen in the young lady’s mind, her conscience suggested still more troubling fears than before. Thus was it that mis- trust and suspicion subsisted between the patriciam lady and her daughter. Lady Say ondale retired, we said, to tho farther -_—- a - ECORRICLOO S (CO)