The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 260: what you’re looking at

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

THE SELF-SACRIFICE DEMANDED 233 Adolphus had tarried behind in the fatal chamber where the late earl had met his death, and whence the assassin had just been borne off in the custody of the officers of justice. The unhappy young man threw himself upon his knees by the side of that couch, buried his face in his hands, and sobbed audibly. What was to become of Ethel? How would he himself ever be able to look the world in the face? His posi- tion was fearful: it was only just a single shade better than it recently was when subject to the extortionate demands of Makepeace on the one hand and to the accusations levelled against him by the countess on the other. Meanwhile the young maid servant had retreated into a room on the same landing, in the hope of finding an oppor- tunity to deliver Ethel’s message to Adolphus, whom she had not as yet seen emerge from the fatal chamber. She kept the door ajar in the room to which she had thus re- treated, and watched for his appearance. Several minutes elapsed, and at length she heard footsteps. She beheld the young earl come forth; a hght that was burning in the pas- sage threw its beams upon his countenance, and the damsel felt her blood run cold as she saw how ghastly pale and how convulsed it was. She scarcely dared issue from the room to deliver the message, and yet she felt that under existing circumstances it was one which she ought not to keep back; for after such a frightful exposure the countess and Adolphus might indeed have much to deliberate upon, and that speedily too. Accordingly, mustering all her courage, the lady’s- maid came forth, and said to the earl, ‘‘ My lord, her lady- ship bade me inform you that she is in the drawing-room, and desires to see your lordship before you retire to your own chamber.” ‘Which drawing-room? ”’ asked Adolphus, in a voice so deep and hollow that it made the girl recoil as if from the presence of an animated corpse. “In the red drawing-room, my lord,’’ she answered, re- gaining with a mighty effort a sufficiency of self-possession for the purpose. | She then fled away to her own chamber, and Adolphus pro- ceeded to the red drawing-room, saying within himself, “ Everything must be revealed to Ethel; it will be useless for me to conceal it. All the domestics would show her by their manner to-morrow that the terrible truth has been pro- EOMINGIOOKS (CO)