The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 190: what you’re looking at

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

CHRISTINA 163 ‘You perceive, therefore, Miss Ashton,” continued Mere- dith, ‘‘ that you really must suffer this matter to take its course, and that you would be doing me a positive injury by any direct interference. At the same time, I fully ap- preciate the generosity of your motives, and I feel myself bound to offer that you shall be made acquainted with the result. If I fall in the impending duel, some friend of mine shall wait upon you with the intelligence, but if I survive, I will do myself the pleasure of calling, to convince you per- sonally of my safety.”’ Had Christina Ashton been less inexperienced than she was in the ways of the world, she would have penetrated this somewhat insidious and perhaps not altogether hand- some endeavour to draw from her lips an avowal of the place of her abode, but artless and guileless herself, she was unsus- picious of underhand dealings on the part of others. The same motive which had prompted her to mention her name now at once instigated her to mention her address, and having hastily done so, she again bowed and continued her way. Meredith had no longer the faintest shadow of an excuse for detaining her, though he would gladly have gone on lingering in conversation with a being whose beauty had made such a deep impression upon his heart. We must ob- serve that these scenes had taken place in a portion of the Regent’s Park which is seldom much frequented by persons either on foot or on horseback, even when the park itself serves as a fashionable resort; but in the autumn season of the year the fashionable world were for the most part out of town, the parks were well-nigh deserted, and the partic- ular spot where these incidents occurred had not at the time a single individual passing that way, save and except Meredith, Christina, and the impudent libertine who had insulted her. Octavian continued his way slowly toward his own house. On arriving there, he found the carriage in readiness, as he had promised to accompany Zoe foradrive. His first impulse was to make some excuse, as he wished to be alone with his own thoughts, but his natural generosity would not permit him to do this. He felt that he had no right to deprive his wife of his company, in consequence of any new or altered _ feelings which might have arisen within him, but that on the E@ORNICLIIOOKS (E(0)