The Works of George W. M. Reynolds — page 359: what you’re looking at

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

342 THE COURT OF LONDON course and how he had fallen in with Mary’s three sisters at Calais, whom he had escorted to Paris. JI answered his welcome epistle; and he wrote to me another as affectionate as the first. But that was the last letter which I received from him, and then his correspondence suddenly ceased. This was at the end of September.’’ “And throughout the month of October,’ observed Clara, ‘‘ your letters to me were mournful indeed. You seemed to fancy that your lover had altogether abandoned you rk Ey), ‘No, no, dearest Clara,’’ exclaimed Louisa, blushing. ‘“T did not then suspect his fidelity; but I was afraid, indeed, I was haunted with the idea, that some terrible calamity had overtaken him.”’ ‘Well, and did I not send you all the consolation in my power?” asked Clara; ‘‘ did I not conjure you to cherish hope and avoid despair, — although at the time Heaven knows that I was utterly ignorant of what had really become of your lover.”’ “Had it not been for your soothing and consolatory letters,’ said Louisa, ‘‘I should have become delirious with anguish, or else have been plunged into a blank despair. Well, in this manner did the month of October pass mourn- fully on; and just as it was drawing to a close, I received a letter, dated from Paris, and stating that it was of the highest consequence to me to repair thither without delay in order to learn certain calamitous truths relative to Jocelyn Loftus. That letter, which bore the signature of ‘ An Un- known Friend,’ desired me to proceed at once to the British consul on my arrival in Paris, and he would give me further information. Conceive, my dear Clara, the state of mind into which this letter threw me; and, oh, you were not nigh to counsel me. | felt that it was wrong to leave our poor aunt to the care of a comparative stranger; but, on the other hand, it would have been madness or perhaps death for me to have remained at home, a prey to the most excruciating suspense.’ ‘Poor girl!’ said the elder sister, hastily wiping her eyes. ‘No, I was not there to succour you with my advice, al- though I ought to have been. But go on, Louisa, go on,” she repeated, with a sort of nervous impatience. ‘I can understand full well how it was that you yielded to the Gomichookssco