The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 329: what you’re looking at

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ee ee wee mes —_—_—_— —,” THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT, 315 would not think it rude nor unbecoming on my | affection for each other—an affection not only part, I should so earnestly advise you to think of | natural in consequence of the ties of brother and marriage " sister, but also strengthened by the keen apprecia- “ Well, well,” said the Baronet, laughing; “I| tion of that orphan lot which they have together suppose I must think of it some day or another. | endured from childhood. It is true that Theodore But let me read over again this paragraph relative | self-appropriated some of Mr. Emmerson’s money; to poor Ariadne’s brother; and then you shall teil | and I feel confident it is also true that the hard- me at full length and ino detail, all those inci- | hearted, griping, greedy cit'zen did tell the unhappy dents that you have gleaned from her lips and Theodore that if within three days he did not pre- which you have as yet only sketched so briefly to | pare his sister to surrender her honour, the worst me? should ensue. ‘This was towards the close of Sep- “ Please to read the passage aloud, sir,” said Mrs, | tember; and for the three following diys Ariadne Baines: “for I only glanced hurriedly over it just | Says that her poor brother seemed to be frenzied nur’ with grief. It was not until the third night that Sir Douglas Huntingdon accordingly took up | he revealed to his sister the horrors of his position the newspaper and read aloud the ensuing pas- | and the deeper infamy into which Emmerson tried sage:— to plunge them both. Aviadne was at first dis- “Tt will be in the recollection of our readers that at the | tracted: but in a short time the natural strength last sessions of the Old Bailey, a respectable-looking and | of her character enabled her to speak with calm- genteel young man, named Theodore Varian, was sen- | ness upon the position in which herself and un. tenced to transportation for seven years for embezzling | happy brother were involved. To be brief, they monies and falsifying accounts while in the service of Mr. | saw no alternative but flight ;—and having hastily Emmerson, the well known stock-broker of Birchin Lane. | gisnosed of everything saleable, and thus reduced On the trial, it will be borne in mind, the young man : | pleaded guilty, and told a somewhat pathetic tale relative the amount of their world y possessions to the to having made free with his master’s money to pay debts | COMpass of two small bundles containing changes contracted during a beloved sister’s illness. Up to this | of raiment, they fled from the metropolis. point the sympathy of the whole court had been evidently “ Poor orphans!” said the Baronet, in a low tone in his favour; but it will be remembered that he proceeded | and with an involuntary sigh. “ But go on, Mrs. to accuse Mr. Emmerson of having held out threats and Baines—go on.” DANAE eee er nikietton, Metstane” denied die |" They got a lift in some vehicle as far as Houn- matter of course, Mr. Emmerson indignantly denied the imputation; and the learned Recorder, to whom Mr. Em- slow, where they passed the night. In the next merson’s high character in the City is of course wel) | room to the one where Varian slept, two persons known, told the prisoner very plainly that all previous | of evidently queer character were lodged; and sympathy excited in his behalf, was not merely destroyed, | not being aware that the partition was so thin as but was succeeded by loathing and contempt for this base it was, they conversed unressrainedly, Theodore endeavour to calumniate his employer. Hence the severe | gould not help hearing every word they said; and sentence of seven years’ transportation which his lordship . deemed it right to yass upon the prisoner. he found that they were two highwaymen. They ““We have recapitulated these facts which were before | W&Te boasting of their exploits; and from what published in our columns, in order to remind our readers | they said it appeared that there was always a of the artful cunning and unprincipled disposition of this | much better chance of an offender against the laws young man, whose external appearance and genteel man- | concealing himself in London than ino any ners at first enlisted so much sympathy in his favour. And | gountry districts. In fine, their discourse made if any farther proof were wanted of the right estimate such an impression upon Theodore, that he re- which the learned Recorder formed ef his consummate : hee duplicity, such proof will be found in the occurrence we solved to retrace his way to the capital. In the are about to relate. Ina word, this Theodore Varian es- | MOrning he communicated to his sister all he had caped from Newgate last night in a very remarkable man- | OVerheard, and the resolution he had formed in ner. It appears that during the day the order had been | consequence ; and accordingly, when uight came received for the removal of himself and other convicts to | again they returned to London. Hiding themselves Woolwich, preparatory to their copaninne for the penal | in a garretin some low neighbourhood, they passed settlement. As the order arrived suddenly, the convicts | 4 fortnight in a state of continual terrors, ap- were permitted to see their friends until a late hour last + afi a Ty ociiesil evening; and it is remembered by the gaol authorities | PTeMeMS!ONS, and alarms, 1ey also lived most that Theodore Varian was visited by his sister, who wag | frugally even miserably—in order to eke out clad in an ample cloak. At nine o’clock the bell rang as a | their scanty resources. Poor orphans! how often signal for all visitors to depart; and as there were some | and often must their tears have been mingled as fifty or sixty strangers, male and female, at the time, it they thought of the present and the past, but is supposed that Varlan must have suddenly slipt on hig dared not look forward to the future! Oh! it sister’s cloak, and probably a bonnet and veil which it . : : would have been easy for her to conceal under that cloak. makes “y peneh bles to tie Wha8) See At all events, shortly after the strangers had departed, | SWeet girl must have suffered. Is it not shocking, Theodore Varian was missed; and the above explanation | sir, that such a heavenly creature—such an an- is the only solution that can be given as to the mode of gelic being —should be doomed to know such escape. Up to the hour of going to press, we have not | bitter affliction? Only fancy those soft azure heard Of His Teveyaere eyes weeping such bitter tears— only fancy those “And the conjecture, then, relative to the method | lovely pale cheeks, just like damask, being scalded of the escape, 1s the right one,” said the Baronet, | with floods of anguish !—Ah! and fancy too, that as he laid down the newspaper. “ But you must | those lips which look like rose-buds, should ever now give me all the details of Ariadne’s narra- | wreath otherwise than in the sunniest smiles.” tive.” “Mrs. Baines, you are growing quite poetical,” “With much pleasure, sir,” replied Mrs. Baines. | said the Baronet, who was in reality deeply “It appears that Theodore and Ariadne are | affected. “Come, pray proceed,” he observed orphans, and that they entertain the sincerest hurriedly: “you were telling me how this poor girl ee “COnnicbooks.co