The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 385: what you’re looking at

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

352 THE COURT OF LONDON reads all very pretty in romances and novels, and which is called the prompting of maternal instincts, but let me tell you there is very little of it in the fashionable world.” ‘““ Nevertheless,’’ observed Agatha, with a sort of gasping of the breath, ‘‘ I must candidly admit that I do feel much more than I ever thought I should; and though of course anxious, yes, deeply, profoundly anxious, to get through this painful ordeal as tranquilly as possible, and without suspicion, much less exposure, I cannot altogether divest myself of a yearning to acquire the assurance that the innocent offspring of this amour will not be altogether abandoned, deserted, uncared for — ”’ “Don’t be alarmed, Agatha, and don’t be childish,” interrupted Mrs. Ranger. ‘‘ Am I not about to introduce you to the worthy doctor whom I have selected to conduct this business throughout? And will you not now have an opportunity of learning from his lips what kind of an arrange- ment I have made? You ought rather to lavish thanks upon me than convey anything like a remonstrance or reproach, even by implication. Think you, my dear, that I found out Doctor Maravelli without trouble, and without a considerable exercise of that ingenuity wherein I may be said to excel? As a matter of course, dwelling as I am under the roof of her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales, I could not go about openly and publicly asking after a discreet doctor who would engage to do certain services on specific conditions. Had I been thus imprudent, all Geneva would have rung with the scandal by this time, and the common report would be that one of her Royal Highness’s ladies was in a way that rendered the services of an accoucheur shortly needful. No, no, my dear girl,’’ continued the vain, conceited, and garrulous Mrs. Ranger, ‘‘ I do not commit myself in so silly a manner. I knew the value of caution and prudence in this affair as well as in any other that I ever undertook. Accord- ingly, it was only by dint of cunning inquiries, stealthily pursued, catching a hint in one quarter and following it up in another, then pursuing the subject elsewhere, and so on, it was only, I say, by these means that I at length obtained the information I sought, namely, the abode of a doctor who is sufficiently clever to be trusted in respect to his skill and sufficiently discreet to be trusted in respect to his honour. Moreover, it was necessary that he should be sufficiently Gomicbdooks (E(0)