The Works of George W. M. Reynolds — page 354: what you’re looking at

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

THE LADY’S - MAID 307 or the presence of any other person who might interrupt the meeting of the lovers in the garden. We should observe that of all the splendid mansions in Park Lane not one possessed so large a piece of ground in the rear as Saxondale House. Not that this was very large, either, and for a garden in the country it would have been ridiculously small, but for a town residence it was the very reverse. Being crowded with evergreens, which had grown to a considerable size and formed shady walks, — indeed, embowering some spots so completely as to shut out the view from all the adjacent windows, — this garden was well adapted for the meeting of lovers. But how was it, the reader may ask, that Constance could not devise opportunities of seeing the Marquis of Villebelle in places where they might be still less liable to interruption? ‘Those who are acquainted with the routine of fashionable life must be aware how difficult it is for young unmarried ladies to find such occasions. If the Misses -Farefield went out to walk, they had a tall footman follow- ing at a short distance, and if they went out in the carriage, it was impossible to alight and leave the equipage for any length of time, unattended and alone, without incurring the risk of gossiping observations on the part of the servants. If they went shopping they were certain to meet so many of their acquaintances that it would be dangerous to seek such opportunities for the interviews of love; and inasmuch as the Marquis of Villebelle had for some months ceased to visit at Saxondale House, the only way in which Constance could contrive to pass an hour alone with him was by these clan- destine meetings in the garden. The servants, generally, thought that the young lady buried herself for an occasional hour in the umbrageous recesses of the garden for the purpose of practising on her guitar, and thus when the sounds of that instrument were heard emanating from amidst the evergreens at the extremity of the enclosure, none of the domestics would venture to penetrate thither. <A side door, of which it was easy for Mary Anne to obtain the key, was wont to afford admission to the Marquis of Villebelle; but on three or four occasions when a half-hour’s interview was to be stolen after dusk, and when the key was not immediately forthcoming, the intrepid Frenchman had not hesitated to scale the boundary-wall. GOmiiGcaooks (S(O)