The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 378: what you’re looking at

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

THE VILLA AT GENEVA 345 ‘“ Yes, unfortunately I am,’’ answered the colonel, who was playing his own part quite as well as Emma enacted hers, and calling to his aid the most impassioned air he could pos- sibly assume, he said, “ Yes, ’tis true, alas! too true, that I am married. But married to whom? To one who never possessed my heart, and who never loved me. It was for her gold that I offered her my hand, it was for my social position she accepted it. A union, begun in selfishness, could not end in love. But I need not dwell upon this unhappy marriage of mine. Suffice it to say, that I am separated from my wife. She has returned to her friends, and I am, as it were, my own master once again. Sated for the time with the pleasures and enjoyments of the fashionable world, I have come to wander upon the Continent for change of scene and variety of recreation. But little did I think that this visit of mine to southern Europe would turn the very springtide of my life into anewchannel! Little did I think that I was destined to meet one whose image has become indelibly stamped upon my heart! Oh, dearest Emma, hitherto there has been much lively discourse between us, much jocularity and badi- nage, and indeed your archness is so amiable, and your most mischievous looks are so often the most seductive as they are ever the most killing, that it were a pity to implore you to be serious. But serious we must nevertheless be, while I declare solemnly and sacredly that I love you.” “But you are married, you are married!’ exclaimed Kmma, deeming it right to affect a temporary prudery, because a too speedy surrender under the circumstances would, she thought, stamp her character with unpardonable levity in the estimation of her companion. But still, though she seemed to give vent to that ejaculation with a kind of inward anguish, she did not withdraw herself from the half- embrace in which the colonel retained her. “ Because I am married, dearest girl,’’ he whispered, with all the appearance of deep emotion, “‘ it is no reason wherefore I should not love you. You are beautiful, you are fascinating, and I have no power over volition. Would that I could rend asunder the bond which chains me to that destiny of mar- riage! But I cannot, and while offering you a heart that never loved before, and that will ever be most tenderly devoted and attached, I am unable to say that my hand accompanies it. If you have no love for me in return, you Cconniclooolks (C(O)