The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 330: what you’re looking at

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

THE FORGED LETTER 297 bust, he was enabled to help himself to the note which she had hesitated to give him. Drawing it forth from the Ely- sian temple which had been made its receptacle, and while she herself, blushing and trembling, panting and palpitating, sank upon a seat to adjust her hair and resume her veil, the earl ran his eyes over the contents of the letter: ‘Pardon me, dearest lady, for venturing to address you in such terms as these which I am about to adopt, but the good feeling that sprang up between us last evening at Carlton House, the tender nature of the discourse which we held together, and the manner in which you received the little demonstrations of love which the opportunity per- mitted me to make, all have emboldened me to repeat the avowal of my feelings in far more explicit terms. Although I have had the pleasure of your acquaintance for some few years past, and although I have ever regarded you as one of the handsomest and most accomplished ladies of the day, it was nevertheless reserved until last night for your wit and beauty to assert a sudden but irresistible empire over my heart. ‘This is the truth, the solemn truth, and I implore you to believe me when I declare that last night the influence of your loveliness, your fascinations, and your graces, filled my soul with a boundless admiration. I was smitten with a deathless sentiment. Oh, do not reject my prayer because in the cold formal routine of the world’s circumstances I am already married, do not scorn me because my hand is given to another, for my heart was mine own to bestow until last night, and now it is no longer mine — it is yours! “The prayer that I am about to offer up is that you will grant me a meeting this night, so that I may explain my feelings more fully. The opportunity for such an interview is ready at hand. Lady Wenlock gives a masked ball, to which of course you have received an invitation. May I entreat you to be there to-night soon after nine o’clock? I shall be dressed as a Cavalier, with a small cap of the archer fashion, long ringlets, a velvet doublet, red belt, and yellow buskins. Of course I shall be masked. Be you there, masked or veiled, so that no one may recognize you. That you may incur no danger of compromising yourself by any error or mistake, I propose that you accost me Gomilcbooks (E(0)