The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 326: what you’re looking at

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

CHRISTIAN’S FIRST DAY 295 the house, and on the morrow reveal everything to a magis- trate, or to the relatives of the duchess, if he could find out who they were. This, we say, was his first impulse; and he was starting from his seat to obey it, when a thought struck him, and he sat down again. Ii he were to carry out such a plan, would it succeed, should he be believed, would not the duke and Stanhope indignantly deny the imputa- tion and denounce it as the raving of a madman or the odious calumny of a miserable impostor? And would not the world give its faith to the bold denial of those two men of high social position rather than to the unsupported tes- timony of an obscure individual? Might not such conduct on Christian’s part be even attributed to a vindictive feeling toward the man who had recently insulted his sister? All these considerations induced Christian to pause. Then, what course should he pursue? His mind was far too un- settled, his thoughts were too much excited, to allow him to come to any conclusion on the present occasion. He accordingly stole forth from the library, groped his way along a passage to the back staircase, and succeeded in reaching his chamber without disturbing any one. We should here observe that when the household had retired to rest, Mr. and Mrs. Calvert fancied that the young secretary had already sought his own room, little dreaming that he had fallen asleep in the library and was continuing to slumber there while lamp and fire went out. (-) LOOKS (C(O) com