The Works of George W. M. Reynolds — page 199: what you’re looking at

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

182 | THE COURT OF LONDON delicious groves, through the verdant fields, and amidst the vineyards, orchards, and gardens which formed the environs of the beautiful village whose name we have forgotten, but which everybody who has travelled in those parts cannot fail to recognize. At five o’clock he returned to the inn, and was introduced by the pretty waitress into a neatly furnished parlour, looking upon a garden, whence the evening breeze, balmy and fragrant, was waited through the open window. ‘The table was laid with characteristic neatness, and the pale- faced gentleman in black, who was to be Jocelyn’s com- panion at the repast, was already there. He was a native of the country, and spoke French with that peculiar but by no means disagreeable accent which marks the Genevese. His appearance was not altogether prepossessing, but Jocelyn was not accustomed to judge men thereby, and as his companion proved to be endowed with great conversa- tional powers, our hero soon forgot his sinister looks in the charms of his discourse. It appeared that he was a pro- fessional man residing at Geneva, and tnat he had come to the little village that afternoon to inspect some property in the neighbourhood which he was desirous of purchasing. The fact of the Genevese gentleman giving this account of himself was a sort of invitation for Jocelyn to do the same, and our hero accordingly said that he was an Englishman having some particular business of a private character to transact at Geneva, where he did not, however, expect to make a very long stay. He then asked if his companion happened to know whether the Princess of Wales had a large retinue, and in what style she was living. The Genevese gentleman seemed rather struck by the circumstance that these questions should follow so closely upon the explanation previously given by our hero, and perhaps he inferred therefrom that “ the business oi a private character ”’ which was taking Jocelyn to Geneva was in some way or another connected with the princess. “Her Royal Highness,” he said, “‘is living handsomely, but quietly,” and here a peculiar smile for a moment curled the individual’s lips, — a smile which was so slight and so transitory that it would have escaped observation altogether if its expression had not been so very strange and even sinister. GOmMmicdooks (E(0)