The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 267: what you’re looking at

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

CHAPTER XIX THE INTERVIEW CHRISTIAN ASHTON, on being dismissed from the em- ployment which the literary mania of the Earl of Lascelles had furnished him, would have consulted Mr. Redcliffe as to the course which he should now adopt with a view to obtain another situation, but that gentleman was absent from London, relative to the trial of Lettice Rodney. Our young hero visited his sister Christina, and acquainted her with everything that had occurred. He displayed so much grief at this sudden and cruel separation from Isabella Vincent, he spoke so fervidly of the love which he cherished toward her, and declared with such passionate vehemence that his hap- piness was entirely centred in that beauteous and charming creature, that Christina from her brother’s words and manner - acquired a somewhat deeper reading into the mysteries of her own heart, and she could now less than ever mistake the feeling which she herself entertained toward Lord Octavian Meredith. But she did her best to console and encourage her brother, and perhaps with this amiable purpose in view, she spoke more cheerfully of the hope which a faithful love might entertain than was perfectly consistent with the misgivings she secretly experienced on behalf of Christian’s passion. For she could not help seeing that it was indeed most unlikely the Earl of Lascelles would ever consent to _ bestow his niece upon an obscure young man totally depend- ent on his own industry for his bread. Nevertheless, as we have just observed, Christina — with the kindest of motives — spoke cheeringly to her brother, and he went away from that interview comforted, and with a sense of reviving hope. As he wended his way back toward his lodgings in Kensington, recha himself gradually falling CONMIC boo Ss (E) mM