The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 249: what you’re looking at

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

MALDEN FARM 219 1) ‘‘ If I had been offended, my good woman, the marchioness, ‘‘ should I have visited you this evening, thereby preferring for the time your dwelling to my own country-seat which is so near at hand? Besides, when Lord Raymond first applied to you for permission to establish himself as a lodger in the peaceful seclusion of Malden Farm, you wrote to me frankly and ingenuously upon the subject.” ‘And your ladyship replied that you had no personal animosity against your cousin Lord Raymond Montgomery,”’ observed Farmer Brooks, “‘ and that you therefore enter- tained not the slightest objection to his becoming a lodger beneath this roof.”’ ‘“‘ I think that I said even something more than this,”’ re- marked Lady Bellenden, “‘ for if my memory serves me truly I stated in my reply to your letter, Mr. Brooks, that I enter- tained the deepest sympathy and compassion for my cousin Raymond, to whom however I have not spoken for so many years. But I had heard of his hopeless passion for the beautiful Fernanda Aylmer, now Lady Holderness, I had heard of the enthusiastic devotion with which he wor- shipped that splendid creature, I had heard of the heartless coquetry which she practised toward him, giving him en- -couragement at one time, and then jilting him for the Hon- ourable Mr. Eaton, whom she did not marry after all, I had heard these various particulars, I say, and I was touched with pity for the young noble. Indeed, I expressed myself in those terms when writing the reply to your letter.” ““T remember it well, my lady,” said Brooks; ‘ and the kind, the handsome, the friendly tone of your letter decided me and my wife in receiving Lord Raymond into our house agreeably to his request.” ‘TI suppose that being well-nigh heart-broken by his dis- appointed love,’ observed: the marchioness, ‘“‘ he courted solitude as the only condition of existence which could possibly accord with a mind so wounded and a spirit so bruised as his own. Poor youth! I had heard much of his amiability, his goodness of heart, his generosity toward the poor; and I pitied him, sincerely pitied him. And to tell you the truth, it was partially with the desire of meeting my unfortunate cousin, whom I have not seen since his childhood, that I resolved to tarry at your abode, good people, during my few hours’ visit to this neighbourhood. Is Raymond COMMUG interrupted OO) SS mn