The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 327: what you’re looking at

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

CHAPTER XXIII AN ADVISER CHRISTIAN awoke after a few hours of troubled repose, and it was still dusk on that cold wintry morning. He did not therefore immediately get up, but began to arrange all his confused ideas, so as to convince himself that what was uppermost in his thoughts was not merely the recollection of adream. His convictions told him that it was indeed all too true, and he perceived the necessity of deciding on the course which he should adopt. For the various reasons which had occurred to him on the preceding night, and which we have detailed at the close of the last chapter, he felt how impossible it was to proclaim to the world all he knew. Yet how could he remain in the employment of a man whom he had thus discovered to be the most black-hearted of villains? On the other hand, if he were to withdraw from the house, how could he serve the duchess and frustrate the satanic plot which was in embryo for her destruction? No, he must remain beneath that roof, for once more did the thought revert to his mind that Heaven itself had willed him to become its own instru- ment for the salvation of an innocent lady and the confusion of her foes. Should he speak to the duchess upon the sub- ject? No, not for a single moment could he hope or expect that she would believe him. If she had known him for years, it would be different, but he was an utter stranger to her, he had only been in the house a few hours, she had seen him but for a few moments, and it would be the height of mad- ness to expect that she would give credit to a tale so horribly damnatory to her husband’s character. He must remain quiet for the present, he must watch the progress of events, and he must act accordingly. 296 EORMIC NOOO KS (E(0)