The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 102: what you’re looking at

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

THE SHADY AVENUE 83 consent they avoided. There was no significant pressure of the hands, noembrace snatched, no kiss exchanged. Yet as they sat or walked together, they often found themselves, when unobserved by others, gazing into the depths of each other’s eyes; and when suddenly recollecting that there was impropriety and danger in this, they averted their looks amidst blushes on the cheeks and sighs coming up from the heart, — those looks, however, which were again so soon to meet and blend in the soft transfusion of their spirits. And these looks, impossible of control, impossible of repression, conveyed all the adoration which was mutually felt, — fond- ness commingling with fondness, the beams of tenderness entertwining together. But their discourse, as we have already said, was not upon love, and they were both too intellectual to dwell incessantly upon light, every-day topics, while, on the other hand, they could not bring their minds to the calm, serious, deliberate discussion of books, the sciences, or the arts. Therefore was it that long intervals of silence would reign between them, but a silence only of the tongues, — a silence in the midst of which a thousand things were said by the eloquent language of the eyes. Any stranger who might have seen that young man of godlike beauty, and that young lady of excelling loveliness, would have at once concluded that they were mated in marriage, or that they were lovers soon to be so joined, for even the most superficial glance must have perceived a certain fitness in the union of this couple. But destiny had decreed other- wise: they loved, yet they were not mated; they adored each other, but a stupendous gulf existed between them. The Duke of Marchmont never for a moment suspected that it was possible for his wife and Bertram to form an attachment for each other, much less that they already loved from an old-standing acquaintance. He believed in the high honour of his nephew and in the purity of his wife. And he was right in so believing. He never even asked himself whether it was dangerous that they should thus be thrown together; the thought never for an instant entered his head. He was by no means a jealous man; that is to say, his jealousy was difficult to excite save and except by pal- pable evidence and on unquestionable grounds. He had flattered himself that Eliza loved him, and in the glacial coldness which she and Bertram had mutually shown during (ECL a LOOK KS (E(O)