The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 153: what you’re looking at

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

130 THE COURT OF LONDON looking at his watch he found it was eight o’clock. Stealing forth from the dining-room, he hastened along the passage and unlocked the door of the chamber in which the prince and Mrs. Malpas had passed the night together. He then retraced his way to the dining-room, rang the bell, and ordered the servant who answered the summons to show him to a chamber where he might perform his ablutions. This was done, and when the captain had shaved, washed himself, and had his clothes brushed, he declared that “he was ready to eat breakfast against any two men living.”’ ) A few explanations will now suffice to give the issue of the other adventures which occurred at Carlton House during the memorable night whereof we have been writing. In the first place, we must state that Mrs. Malpas suc- ceeded in escaping unobserved out of the palace, but not without a previous understanding between herself and his Royal Highness as to some future meeting. The prince gained his own dressing-room, likewise free from unpleasant notice, and by no means dissatisfied with the new conquest which he had achieved. Let us now peep into Venetia’s boudoir. There, at about eight o’clock in the morning, we shall find the lady herself still reclining in the couch where she had been compelled to abandon her charms to a man whom she detested. The colonel was up and dressed, — that is to say, so far as he could be, his coat and waistcoat having been left in the housemaid’s room. But Jessica was summoned, and when the faithful abigail was admitted into the boudoir and found how her mistress had, after all, been triumphed over by the colonel, she could scarcely conceal her indignation. <A significant look, however, from her mistress induced her to hold her peace, by reminding her that she, the brilliant Venetia, was completely in the colonel’s power, but that the day of vengeance would sooner or later come. As for Malpas himself, he sought not even to conceal his sense of triumph and satisfaction, but this feeling was only expressed in his looks, and not in his words. To be brief, Jessica procured his coat and waistcoat from the chamber of the housemaid, to whom she proffered some hurried excuse to account for those garments being there COUN () LOOKOL KS (E(0)