The Works of George W. M. Reynolds — page 357: what you’re looking at

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

340 THE COURT OF LONDON rending anguish, and now their souls seemed to burn with the scathing effects of ineffable terror. The voice of the doctor was heard vociferating to Mavolta to bring water, vinegar, and smelling-salts; and the quick sounds of foot- steps through the hall, as the physician and Jocelyn con- veyed the wretched girls to the dining-room, all tended to prove that something unusual, strange, and extraordinary was going on. Wild with alarm, and their feelings now excited to a pitch utterly beyond endurance, Lady Prescott and the Countess of Curzon descended the stairs. On reaching the hall, they beheld two doors standing open, and from both of which lights were streaming. One of these doors Lady Prescott had never seen open before all the time she had been at the doc- tor’s house, and perceiving that the other door which stood open was that of the dining-room, it naturally struck her that the shrieks of anguish she had heard had proceeded from the former place ere those who had uttered them were borne into the latter apartment. Quick as thought alone can travel did this idea strike her, and, impelled by a curiosity now excited to a fearful, indeed, to an awful pitch, she hastened toward that door which stood open at the end of the passage leading from the hall. Lady Curzon, inspired by kindred feelings, mechanically followed her, and together did they enter the dissecting-room, where the candle which Maravelli had left upon the table at once showed them the fearful objects that lay stretched on that anatomical board. For the corpse of the child they had no eyes or thoughts. All their attention, all their interest, all their ideas were in a moment riveted and absorbed in the dread spectacle of their two murdered victims lying there stretched out before them. For nearly a minute did they stand gazing in mute horror, their countenances ghastly pale, and with a paleness, too, which settling upon their olive complexions gave to their features a corpselike hue similar to the faces of the dead. Then, as if simultaneously seized with the same goading terror, they turned away, exchanging a quick look of inde- scribable feelings, and passed forth into the hall again. As they proceeded side by side along the passage, they threw quick, shuddering glances over their shoulders, in dire apprehension lest something should be following close behind. Gomichbooks (E(0)