The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 118: what you’re looking at

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

THE DISGUISED ONE 95 slowly walked away from the fountain; “‘ have you anything to communicate? ”’ “No, my lady,’ answered the ayah, “ but you gave me permission to join you occasionally when you were alone — ” ‘Yes, my faithful Sagoonah,” rejoined the queen, “‘ be- cause I have fancied that for the last few days you have been pensive and mournful, or that at least you have had strange fits of abstraction — ”’ “Ob, no, my lady,’”’ said Sagoonah, lifting her large dark eyes with an air of the most ingenuous candour toward Indora’s countenance. ‘‘ I can assure you that it is not so. I have already given your ladyship that same assurance.” | ‘“T am glad to hear you repeat it, Sagoonah,’’ remarked the queen, ‘‘ because you know that I experience an affec- tion for you. You have served me so truly and faithfully! But tell me, Sagoonah,”’ asked Indora, thus suddenly in- terrupting herself, ‘‘ shall you be glad soon to return to your own native country? ”’ ‘‘T am always happy where your ladyship is,’’ replied the ayah. ‘“ And you will go back, my Sagoonah,”’ proceeded the queen, now smiling good-naturedly and with a caressing manner, — ‘‘ you will go back without having lost your heart to any native of this metropolis? ”’ Sagoonah stooped suddenly down to pluck a flower that grew on the edge of the border which Indora and herself were passing at the time, and then she looked up into the countenance of her mistress with the same ingenuously frank expression as before. For an instant Indora was smitten with a suspicion — on account of the incident of the flower, which had a sort of petulance in it — that the words she had used in good-humoured jocularity had really touched a chord vibrating in the ayah’s heart, but this idea quickly vanished when Sagoonah thus gazed up at her in so candid a manner. ‘Yes, my faithful dependent,” continued the queen, ‘‘T know that you will rejoice to return to your native land, and the time is not far distant when we shall set off thither. And we shall not go alone, my dear Sagoonah,”’ proceeded Indora, a blush now suffusing the delicate duski- CORNICLOOKS (CO)