The Works of George W. M. Reynolds — page 44: what you’re looking at

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

THE DRAMA OF A NIGHT 27 which were but three feet from his head, ‘‘ I wrote to her a penitent letter imploring her pardon. She sent for me to Carlton House, she proposed to me this mission in which I am now engaged, a mission similar to your own — ” “ But — and now answer me with the solemn serious truth,’’ interrupted the earl, ‘did she receive you with favour, did she smile upon you? ”’ ‘““No, no,’’ responded Malpas, actually writhing as he beheld the earl’s fingers playing, as it were, with the triggers of the pistols, ‘‘ she treated me with scorn, she seemed to regard me as a reptile.”’ “Ah! that is sufhcient,’’ said the earl, lowering the pistols; and, his curiosity being gratified with regard to the subject of his inquiry, he muttered, half-audibly, “‘ I see, I understand, she made a tool of you, she treated you as a hireling agent well fitted to do her dirty work. But she should not have placed me on the same footing,’ and the haughty Earl of Curzon bit his lip with an Ee expres- sion of vexation. Although so profoundly a prey to his dastard fears, the colonel did not fail to catch those words and mark that mien on the part of the nobleman, and a suspicion of the real truth instantaneously flashed to his mind. It struck him, indeed, that the Earl of Curzon had received the lovely Venetia’s favours; hence the inquiry he had just put relative to his connection with that charming creature, — an inquiry which evidently arose from mingled jealousy and curiosity; hence also those remarks which the earl had half-muttered to himself, and hence the vexation which he experienced on reflecting that he had likewise been used as a fitting agent for Venetia’s dirty work. Such were the reflections that swept through the colonel’s brain, and no sooner had the truth thus flashed to his comprehension when he all in a moment saw the advantage that might be derived from a knowledge of this important secret. Suddenly inspired, therefore, by one of those fits of courageous energy which selfish considerations will often excite even on the part of the craven and the poltroon, _ Malpas seized upon the pistols which the Earl of Curzon had just laid down again on the table. “ Now, then, my lord, it is my turn,” he exclaimed, as Gomicdooks (C(O) mM