The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 384: what you’re looking at

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

THE SECRET EXPEDITION dol Ranger, ‘‘ and if she discovered it, it was because you must have allowed her to do so.’’ “Oh, certainly,” said Agatha, ‘‘ and I rather wished her to know it. At first I had concealed my position from her because I did not think her ideas were quite so far advanced. as those of Emma. But aiter the description which she gave us of the artifices and stratagems she practised, under the guise of Laura Linden, upon the self-styled Jocelyn Loftus, I.did not think it necessary to have any secrets from her.”’ ‘“ And you were right,’ observed Mrs. Ranger. ‘ But there is prudence in being cautious and guarded at first. For instance, your mother and yourselves were quite right in not initiating me fully, at the commencement, into the real object of your appointments about the person of the princess. But as circumstances developed themselves and it became necessary for me to know everything, you see how useful I have been.’’ “Useful indeed!”’ exclaimed Agatha, ‘‘ but to me espe- cially have your services been valuable. Ah! a few months azo, when it first struck me that my amour with the prince regent would not be without certain consequences, I treated the matter lightly enough, and I remember laughing over It with Emma in Paris. But as time wore on, the affair seemed to acquire a certain degree of seriousness.”’ ‘““ Such things are always serious with young girls who are in their first scrape,” said Mrs. Ranger. ‘‘I dare say it will go the round with your two sisters. Here is Emma with some unknown lover dangling at her heels, and Julia with the Earl of Curzon making fierce and violent love to her, also on the sly — But, by the bye, has Emma yet learned the name of her inamorato? ”’ ‘No, I think not yet,’’ answered Agatha, impatiently. ‘“‘ She told me something about it this evening, but I had not time to listen to her then, and we therefore postponed the conversation. But pray, my dear Mrs. Ranger, do let me bring your mind back to the question which I asked you ere now.”’ “Ah! I recollect,’’ exclaimed the woman, who was not only a Hecate of iniquity, but was as heartless as she was vile. ‘‘ You were talking to me about the expected babe, your babe, and you really seemed as if you already experi- enced some of that maudlin, mawkish, sickly feeling which connicloooks (C(O)