The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 318: what you’re looking at

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

312 THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. will give a satisfactory explanation. I feared that the Lady Indora was ill: but this, thank heaven, does not seem to be the case, or you would not have left her—and moreover you would have per- mitted me to render my assistance.” “ Tisten to me, Miss Ashton,” continued Sa- goonah. “ You know that I am devoted to my beloved mistress i “YT know that you have indeed every reason to love her,” said our amiable heroine: “for I, who have only known her for a few short weeks, love her much—and you have known her from your infancy! But tell me, Sagoonah, why did you look so strange when issuing from the chamber? You terrified me.” “Listen, Miss ~Ashton,’ continued the ayah, with the calmest self-possession. “I have no doubt that with your English notions—and you call them the effects of your high eivilization—you will be startled and astonished—perhaps you will even survey me with pity and contempt, when I tell you of the belief which Ientertain. The con- viction is firm in my mind that evil spirits walk abroad at night—and that they have not merely the power to haunt and scare those whose bedsides they visit, but likewise to wreak upon them a physical mischief. Do you comprehend me, Miss Ashton ?” We should here observe that we are not record- ing the precise language of which Sagoonah made use—nor do we ever when describing her discourse. She was not quite so proficient in the English tongue as to speak it with that degree of accuracy which our mode of shaping her language would appear to represent. Therefore it was not as- tonishing that she should ask Christina if she suc- ceeded in making herself understood ? “Yes—I comprehend you perfectly,” replied our heroine: “ but I deeply regret, Sagoonah, to learn that you abandon yourself to these super- stitions.” “ Bear with me, my dear Miss Ashton,” returned the ayah gravely: “remember that from my very infancy I was brought up in this faith e “And yet the Lady Indora has not the same superstitions,” observed Christina mildly. “True, Miss Ashton!” rejoined Sagoonah: “but the Lady Indora may be as wrong in rejecting them as I may be im clinging to them.” “ We will not discuss the argument itself,” re- plied Christina: “but you have yet to inform me 33 “Why I entered the bed-chamber of my mis- tress,” added the ayah. “Can you not conjecture after all I have said?” she continued, fixing her dark eyes upon our heroine: “can you not com- prehend how, loving her as I do, I often and often feel anxious on her account? ‘To-night I could not rest-———” “You had not sought your couch, Sagoonah,” interrupted Miss Ashton, glancing at the ayah’s attire. “ No—because I knew full well that I could not sleep,” was the Hindoo woman’s response: “I had that feeling which told me how useless it would be to seek a bed on which I should only be tossing restlessly. I was full of vague terrors—I can scarcely explain them—I cannot account for them! But certain it is that under their influence I sought the chamber of my mistress to assure my- self that she was safe—that no evil spirits were haunting her couch nor working her a mis- chie * “ Sagoonah, Sagoonah !” exclaimed Miss Ashton, surveying the ayah with a painful suspicion,—* I know not what to think of this explanation of yours! It is hard to doubt you if the truth be issuing from your lips; and yet—and yet 2 “You do not believe me?” said the ayah, ina tone of plaintive distress. “Ah! this is indeed a source of sorrow and regret for me—because I love you, Miss Ashton—and to lose your confi- dence i Here the wily Sagoonah stopped short; and the tears trickled slowly from her lustrous eyes, glisten- ing like diamonds upon her dark but smooth and polished cheeks. And then to the long ebon fringes of each upper lid did other tears hang quivering and sparkling; and her bosom seemed convulsed with stifling sobs—and her looks were bent so plaintively, so appealingly upon Christina, that the generous heart of the young maiden was profoundly touched. “If for a moment I have wronged you, Sa- goonah,” she said, taking the ayah’s hand,—“if with my English notions 1 have too harshly and suspiciously estimated your conduct—or rather, if I have not known how to interpret it at all, but yet have fancied that you were not truthfully nor frankly explaining it,—I beseech you to pardon me.” “Oh! now your kindness touches me even more than that transient suspicion on your part wounded me!”—and as Sagoonah thus spoke, she took Christina’s hand, pressed it first to her bosom, and then carried it to her lips. ‘“ Yes, my dear Miss Ashton,” she continued, “it was naught but the truth—the sincere, the honest, the genuine truth that I was telling you. Iam superstitjous can I be blamed for this weakness, if a weak- ness it be?” * No, no—not blamed! But I must enlighten you, my poor Sagoonah,” said the amiable heroine of our tale. ‘“ You need not apprehend that evil spirits will haunt one so good as your noble- hearted mistress. If there be evil spirits, the wicked alone have cause to tremble at them. It is not well, Sagoonah, to wander about in the dead of night as you are doing: others who know less of you than I—or rather, who understand your disposition less—would conceive that you were troubled with a guilty conscience. Night is the time when the good sleep—or at least, when they remain in their beds: and it is the season when guilt walks abroad. The fancy is irresistibly led to associate frightful and hideous deeds with mid- night wanderings ae “Miss Ashton, Miss Ashton, you terrify me!” murmured the ayah, who was indeed conscience- stricken by the words which our heroine was thus addressing to her in a tone of mild and gentle solemnity. “There is naught to terrify you in what I say,” answered Christina; “and very far from my object is it to make such an impression upon your mind. I merely wish you to comprehend that these mid- night wanderings are not suitable nor becoming; and that henceforth you must exercise more strength of mind than to yield to superstitious fears. Have you not read, Sagoonab,” continued - eee CORMIELAC VE) S (C@) ~ |