The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 30: what you’re looking at

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

THE BROTHERS 11 Eliza would at once take place as a matter of course. Such was the captain’s foreshadowing, but the dream was sud- denly dispelled, and with the destruction of his delusions came worldly-minded reflections, thickly pouring in. His eyes were now opened to the fatal error he had committed; he ought to have inquired at the outset whether in due time Bertram Vivian would be in a position to settle in marriage. He now comprehended that so far from anything of the sort, the young man had to enter on the career of life, and, with certain chances given him, carve them out into substantial shape as best he could. The captain was by no means such an idiot as not to be- think himself that separation and altered circumstances make a wonderful change in the youthful heart; and firmly convinced as he had previously been that all would go on smoothly in love’s career, to be crowned with the marriage of the young couple in the end, so settled did his conviction now become that the whole thing was as good as broken off between them. He inwardly cursed himself for his folly, but out of regard for his daughter, he did not at once suffer her to perceive how altered his views were in respect to the hope that he should ever see her the bride of Bertram Vivian. A few days elapsed, at the expiration of which interval Eliza received a letter, dated from Oaklands, the seat of the head of the family to which her lover belonged, and which was situated in Hampshire, far away from the city of Oxford. There it was that the old marquis had died, and his successor had taken possession of the hereditary honours and estates; there it was, too, that all the members of the family were now assembled, to attend the grand funeral which was to consign the deceased peer to his last resting-place. The letter was such a passion-breathing epistle as an enthusiastic lover might be expected to write, and as an adoring maiden might expect to receive. It told her that Bertram’s father, now Lord Vivian, had not as yet spoken to either of his sons in respect to his intentions concerning them, but that such communication was reserved until after the funeral, when. Bertram would write again to his beloved. And in a few more days another letter came. But if it were written almost in despair, so it likewise nearly filled. with despair the heart of the affectionate maiden. Bertram was at once going abroad as a paid attaché to the English em- GoMm () LoV(oKol <S (E(0)