The Works of George W. M. Reynolds — page 387: what you’re looking at

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

310 REYNOLDS’ WORKS life, and thus he had no hesitation in visiting her from time to time, as above described. Of course Florina knew not that he ever went to Saxondale House. She had continued ignorant of the tremendous secret of his birth, — a secret now known but to himself, Lady Saxondale, the Marquis of HKagledean, and Angela (Francis Paton’s wife). But even supposing that the discovery which Hawkshaw had come to Edenbridge Park to announce should be hushed up and buried in silence, how was it possible that the Marquis of Hagledean could suffer the pure-minded and virtuous Wiliam Deverill to go on visiting his mother — a murderess? No; there was something terrific in such a course, something outrageous to every proper sentiment, something against which every feeling of propriety revolted. Then, what was he to do? This question kept agitating in his lordship’s mind as he stood deliberating at the window. There really seemed to be only this plan: that the veil of secrecy should still be kept drawn over the tremendous guilt of Lady Saxon- dale and Lord Harold Staunton, so far as exposure to the world was concerned; but that measures must be adopted to force Lady Saxondale to go abroad, and for ever, so that no more interviews should take place between herself and her lawfully born offspring, Wiliam Deveril. As for Staunton, he likewise must be compelled to depart to some distant clime, with a warning that his only hope of safety lay in making his self-expatriation eternal. Such were the resolves to which the Marquis of Eagledean came; but while explaining them to Mr. Hawkshaw, he did not of course make the slightest allusion to the fact that Wilham Deveril was Lady Saxondale’s son. ‘““My dear friend,” he said, ‘‘I accept the alternative which your noble generosity and that of Mr. Denison has left open. There are too many on whose innocent heads the effect of all this guilt would terrifically redound, to permit an exposure to take place. The veil of secrecy must not therefore be lifted from that dark tragedy. But at the same time, if we forbear from handing over the criminals to the grasp of the law, we must not suffer them to escape without some chastisement. We must force them into exile, to different parts of the world, with the warning that all this forbearance will cease if they ever set foot upon the English soil again. Come, my friend, we will depart for London; CONNIE DOO KS (E(0)