The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 323: what you’re looking at

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

292 REYNOLDS’ WORKS sue for a divorce against a woman whom I hate and detest? May not, I ask, all these things take place, and if you get as good as twenty-four thousand pounds for rendering me this service, will not you be a gainer as well as I? Besides, only think of the honour and credit of having the reputation of intriguing with a duchess! Why, my good fellow, it will make your fortune in more ways than one, it will be to you better than all that fortune which you have lost at the gambling-table. The whole fashionable world will at once vote you their lion, their star, their phcenix, their cynosure. The men will burst with envy and with jealousy, when with a half-smile upon your countenance you stroll jauntily into the brilliant saloons of patrician mansions; the ladies will tap you with their fans and call you the naughty creature — ” ‘““A truce to this bantering!”’ interrupted Stanhope, sharply, almost sternly. “It is true that I am in your Grace’s power, but I am not for that reason to be rendered your laughing-stock. It is impossible that you can mean what you say.” ‘“‘ ] never was more serious in my life,’’ answered the Duke of Marchmont. “By Heaven, my lord, it is a matter wherein I cannot give you credit for the seriousness you speak of, unless you prove it. How know I but that it is some snare, though incomprehensible, some pitfall, though unaccountable, wherein you seek to entrap me? And this dark room, too —” ‘ ‘“* Perdition take your constant recurrence to the darkness of the room!” interrupted the duke, impatiently. ‘“‘ You demand proof? Itis difficult to give. And yet in many cir- cumstances may you recognize such proof. For upwards of fifteen years have I been married to Lavinia, and she has given me no heir. Think you that I, bearing one of the proudest titles in all Christendom, and that title, too, asso- ciated with immense wealth, think you, I ask, that I do not yearn to possess an heir to my distinctions and to my riches? The estates are strictly entailed; think you, there- fore, that it is a pleasurable thing for me to reflect that at my death some far-removed relative, some remote connection whose very existence is at present unknown to me, may spring up, possibly from amidst the dregs of society, for the highest families may be found to have connections, GOmMmichbooks (E(0)