The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 29: what you’re looking at

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

10 ~ REYNOLDS’ WORKS drooping like a tulip on its slender stalk — sank on her lover’s shoulder, and she murmured expressions of un- changing love, as well as of gratitude for the solace he prof- fered her. ‘You are mine, adored Eliza,” he said. ‘‘ You are mine, and here, in the face of Heaven, do I pledge myself wholly and solely unto you. Take this ring, my well-beloved; it has the initial of my Christian name graven on the stone. Keep it, Eliza, as an earnest of those vows which I so sol- emnly, sacredly plight you now.” Almost blinded by her tears, the lovely being placed the ring in her bosom, and drawing off one from her own fair finger, she murmured, in accents that were broken and scarcely audible, yet filled with the soft, plaintive harmony of her dulcet voice, ‘‘ And you, dearest Bertram, take this. It bears also the initial of my name. I will not tell you that I shall remain constant. My own heart gives me that assurance, and you, who can read the secrets of that heart, know that it is entirely and inseparably thine.” Bertram took the ring, pressed it to his lips, and placed it upon his finger. Then the moment for parting came. Oh, who can depict the anguish, the excruciation of feeling, which marked that moment? The calmness which had suc- ceeded the first ebullition of despair, and which in itself was only comparative, vanished altogether. Bertram strained his adored Eliza in convulsive violence to his breast; they both felt as if the tenderest cords of their hearts were being rudely torn asunder. They separated in a state bordering upon frenzy. Bertram rushed from the house, while the young maiden, sinking upon a seat, felt as if she and happi- ness had shaken hands for ever. Captain Lacy returned home about a quarter of an hour afterward, and when the agonizing intentness of Eliza’s afflic- tion had somewhat passed away, or at least was mitigated by the hopes which she busied herself to conjure up. For, oh, it was so necessary for that young heart to sustain itself with hope! The captain was thunderstruck when his daugh- ter informed him of what had occurred. He — good, credu- lous, but self-willed man —had arranged everything so comfortably in his own mind. Bertram would no doubt stay another year longer at the university, he would then be well provided for by his family, and his marriage with Gomicbooks (E(0)