The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 50: what you’re looking at

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

EDGAR BEVERLEY 31 eyes fell upon her, I recognized the one whom [ had twice previously encountered, and whose eloquent looks of passion had so unmistakably conveyed those overtures which I had not thought fit to accept. It was quite evident that Mrs. Maxwell had not previously suspected who the invited guest would prove to be. Indeed, as I presently learned, she had only returned from London just in time to dress for dinner, and I therefore concluded there had been no leisure for much discourse between herself, her husband, and her sister. She started for an instant on beholding me, but both of us recovered our self-possession the next moment, —so quickly, indeed, that there was nothing in the manner of either sufficiently striking to catch the obser- vation of Mr. Maxwell and Louisa. Mrs. Maxwell received me as a perfect stranger, — as one, indeed, whom she now beheld for the first time, and I of course treated her in a similar manner. | “Throughout the evening she was only coldly polite toward me, and her behaviour continued formally reserved until the very last, — as if she merely tolerated me because her husband had happened to invite me, but that I was by no means a welcome guest. A woman, my dear Mr. Ashton, never forgives the mortifying humiliation to which a re- jected overture subjects her, and Mrs. Maxwell was the very last of the sex to be propitiated on such a point. Be- sides, she saw that my attentions were devoted to her beau- tiful sister Louisa; and thus, though herself a married woman, she experienced the rage of jealousy after having vainly sought to ensnare me by her own charms. I saw that she exercised the completest empire over her old hus- band, who was uxorious, submissive, and even servile to a ‘degree, but fond, infatuated, and thus wearing the chains of a willing slavery. Mrs. Maxwell, being several years older than her sister, wielded a species of maternal authority over that sister, who, as their parents had long been dead, naturally looked up to her nearest surviving relative with an almost filial respect. I likewise perceived that Louisa - stood much in awe of her, and once or twice submitted to be rebuked, for some trifle or another, without manifesting the least rebellious spirit. I therefore sympathized pro- foundly with that amiable and beautiful creature who was but too evidently under the dominion of an imperious and EOMINGIOOKS (CO)