The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 173: what you’re looking at

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

150 REYNOLDS’ WORKS “ Zoe, dearest Zoe,’’ exclaimed Octavian, ‘‘ never did you seem more charming in my eyes. Never was your conduct more admirable than at this moment. If your father will consent to our union, I swear that your happiness shall henceforth prove the study of my life.” Again he took her hand, again he pressed it to his lips, and it was not withdrawn, but then he retained it only for a single instant, and bending upon the lovely blushing girl a look of tenderness, he issued from the room. The moment the door closed behind him, Zoe sank upon the sofa whence she had risen up, murmuring to herself with a sensation of holy rapture, “‘ He loves me. He loves me.”’ Yes, Octavian Meredith had all along been the object of Zoe’s secret and hidden affection, and thus the designs of her father were, by an extraordinary coincidence, forwarded by her own feelings. We denominate it extraordinary, because let the reader reflect how seldom it is in real life that where a parent has from selfish or sordid motives fixed upon a particular individual to become his son-in-law, the daughter’s own heart has the whole time been acquiescing in the choice. It was, however, so on the present occasion, and though Miss Armytage was not of a disposition to aban- don herself to a feverish and unnatural excitement, though her mind was too strong and her temperament too placid for such inordinate agitation, yet it would be wrong to imagine, and would indeed be stamping her as deficient in the softness of feminine feeling, if we were to say that her heart fluttered not at all. It did palpitate with a considerable degree of suspense, but her emotions betrayed themselves not outwardly with much violence; yet it was not through any habitual dissimulation nor studied hypocrisy that they were concealed. No, she was all guileless innocence and un- sophisticated ingenuousness, but her disposition, as already stated, was naturally calm, her feelings sank deep down and bubbled up but little to the surface, and they were the purer, the more genuine, and the more lasting on that very ac- count. She was not kept long in a state of uncertainty. In about half an hour the door opened, and Octavian hastened into her presence again, his countenance beaming with rapture and delight, not unmingled with astonishment. The result of his interview with Mr. Armytage was thus at once pro- EORMICLIOWO KS (E(0)