The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 177: what you’re looking at

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

CHAPTER XII THE YOUNG BARONET THE scene was a frightful one; the sudden death of Sir John Steward, following with such awful quickness upon what thus proved to be a presaging warning on his nephew’s part, struck all present with a sense of Heaven’s retribution. Edgar himself stood aghast, motionless, statue-like, though every hand which an instant before was upon him fell as if palsied from its fierce rufflan grasp upon his garments. Laura sprang upright as if galvanized, and stood gazing for a few moments in wild horror upon the scene; then with a sudden and half-stifled shriek, she averted her looks, covered her face with her hands, as if to shut out some object of horror, and sank almost fainting upon a chair. Mrs. Oxen- den, half-stunned for nearly a minute, was transfixed to the spot, — her wildly-open eyes staring upon the hideous scene as if she were in a fearful state of somnambulism, and then, suddenly startled to a sense of the change which had been wrought in the circumstances of Edgar Beverley, she turned toward her sister, murmuring, ‘‘ For Heaven’s sake forgive me, my dearest Laura! ”’ But the young maiden, whose brain was in a whirl, had lost all sense of the relationship subsisting between them, and seeing in Mrs. Oxenden nothing more than a bitter enemy who a few minutes back had been mercilessly up- braiding and taunting her for her attempted flight, the young damsel, we say, repulsed with horror the vile woman whose selfishness alone prompted a reconciliation. Mrs. Oxenden fell back utterly discomfited, and Laura, obedient to a sudden impulse, sprang forward and was once more clasped in the arms of Edgar Beverley. This time there was no one who thought of separating the lovers, 1564 ECORNICLIOOKS (E(0)