The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 126: what you’re looking at

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

LADY BESS’S HISTORY 103 still, I loved him with the sincerest affection. He was not a strong or healthy child, but delicate and interesting, endowed with that remarkable beauty which has accom- panied his growth and which characterizes him now. I myself, on the other hand, was a strong, vigorous girl, tall for my age, and totally unacquainted with even a day’s indisposition. When Frank was old enough to commence learning, Mrs. Burnaby instructed him as she did me, and it gave me the sincerest delight to assist my little brother in his lessons. “Time wore on, and the incident I am about to relate happened in the year 1832. I was then fourteen and Frank was six. One morning Mrs. Burnaby told us that we were to be dressed in our Sunday apparel, and accompany her on a little journey. Presently a vehicle, which had been ordered from Edmonton, drove up to the door; we entered it, and proceeded to some village about ten miles distant, but I did not know the name. There we stopped at a tavern, where a splendid carriage, attended by servants in a gor- geous livery, was waiting. Mrs. Burnaby, myself, and Frank took our places in this carriage, and 1t drove away. Speedily turning out of the main road, it entered a by one, running through some beautiful sylvan scenery. At the expiration of an hour a superb mansion appeared at a little distance. It was situated upon a gentle eminence, in the middle of a park, where numerous deer were frisking about. It was a beautiful day in the middle of summer; the trees and fields were of the liveliest green, the ornamental waters in that park reflected the unclouded blue of heaven, and swans were floating in stately gracefulness upon the limpid lake. Altogether it was a scene which delighted me at the time, and made an indelible impression upon me. “Through this park did the carriage proceed, until it drove up to the entrance of the mansion, where it stopped. Mrs. Burnaby alighted with us; an elderly female, looking like a housekeeper, received us as we descended from the vehicle, and a kind greeting took place between her and Mrs. Bur- naby. They were evidently old acquaintances. The house- keeper, for so I shall call her, bestowed great attention on Frank and me, and seemed surprised that I should have grown such a tall girl. Perhaps she paid me some little compli- ments with an admiring good-nature, but these I pass over. CORNICLOO© cS (C(O)