The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 99: what you’re looking at

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

CHAPTER VII THE SHADY AVENUE THAT evening, when a domestic entered the drawing-room to announce that dinner was served up, Bertram hastened forward to escort the Duchess of Marchmont to the banquet- ing-room — an act of courtesy which for some days he had ceased to perform. And now, too, it was all the more marked, inasmuch as it was the place of his elder brother, Lord Clandon, to perform that ceremonial office. But the duke was pleased when he beheld the incident, and he flung a significant look upon Lord Clandon, as much as to bid him observe that the duchess and Bertram were already getting upon a little more friendly footing, so that the elements of discord might be expected soon to disappear from the bosom of the family. Bertram sat next to the duchess at dinner, and though a complete change had taken place in his mind toward her, though he now regarded her as a victim who still loved him, and not as a wilfully faithless one who had ceased to love, he had a sufficient power of self-control not to show by his conduct any abrupt alteration in his feelings. He was now, to all outward appearance, courteously polite, and nothing more, — courteously polite and profoundly respectful. Still that politeness — evidencing itself in the thousand little attentions which the circumstances of the dinner-table enable a gentleman to manifest toward a lady next to whom he is placed — was a considerable advance upon the former glacial frigidity of his demeanour. The duke, however, was pleased; Lord Clandon seemed likewise gratified by his brother’s courtesy toward their young and beautiful relative, and his lordship took an opportunity to whisper to the duke when the ladies had retired, ‘‘ You see, dear 80 Gomicboo S) (E(0)