The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 267: what you’re looking at

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

CHAPTER XXI BLOOMFIELD It was eleven in the forenoon. Mr. Slater had taken his departure, and Ethel, who had not descended to the breakfast-table, sent an intimation to Adolphus that she would join him in a few minutes in the library. The young earl proceeded thither to await her coming, and as he paced to and fro with a certain degree of suspense, the following reflections passed through his mind: ‘“‘ Now is the crisis of this new phase in my fortunes! Will she yield, or is the warfare to be renewed? Anguish renders the soul capricious, and the mood may have changed again. If so, I must meet her valorously and resolutely. But no, she will be reasonable; she saw last night that I was deter- mined, and she altered visibly at the close of our interview. Why should she not agree with me to defy the world? Wealth procures pleasures that will enable us to live in en- joyment away from that society which banishes us. To love her again— No, that is impossible! The freshness, the enthusiasm, the glow of that love of mine are gone for ever. I feel, I feel that I am an altered man. But to toy with her as a mistress, or to endure her as a wife— _ Yes, yes, this is possible, this is easy indeed, and it may even be hap- piness, since it will put an end to strife, it will relieve me from apprehension, it will rescue me from a vortex of perplexities and cares. The door opened, and the Countess of Lascelles made her appearance. The first glance which Adolphus threw upon her filled him with hopefulness, for though she was still very pale, and looked as if she had passed an utterly sleepless night, yet her features had lost that rigidity which expressed so stern a resoluteness of purpose; and if there were not 240 EORNICLIOO KS (E(0)