The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 174: what you’re looking at

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

THE WOUNDED AYAH 151 ‘‘ Now, my young friend, you shall proceed to Mr. Redcliffe, and tell him what has occurred. The carriage will be ready for you in a few minutes.” Our hero accordingly set off. It was now past ten o’clock at night, and he found Mr. Redcliffe at the lodgings in Mor- timer Street. That gentleman was horrified at the intelli- gence conveyed to him, and he lost not a moment in accom- panying Christian in the carriage to the villa. During the drive thither, Mr. Redcliffe learned from our hero’s lips everything that had taken place, and he was particular in eliciting from Christian all that had been said by the police officers or in their presence. He then fell into a profound reverie, and the silence was not broken until the villa was reached. In the meanwhile the surgeon had returned. Sagoonah was unconscious of all that was passing around her, but still there was no immediate fear for her life. Christina, over- come and exhausted by the excitement of feeling which she had sustained, had sought her couch at the earnest entreaty of the queen; while Indora herself had been sitting by the bedside of Sagoonah, who knew not that the mistress whom she had intended to wrong so deeply by wreaking her ven- geance upon Clement Redcliffe was thus kindly ministering to her there. Mr. Redcliffe and Queen Indora consulted together alone for a considerable time. It was impossible for them to doubt as to the source whence a horrible vindictiveness had emanated; antecedent circumstances only too plainly showed that the Duke of Marchmont must be the instigator of the assassin deed. But then, who was the assassin, or rather, we should say, the intending murderer? From all that Mr. Redcliffe had previously communicated to the queen, she had felt convinced that it was not Mr. Wilson Stanhope, and hence had she so emphatically expressed to the police officers her incompetency to point to any particular individual. Mr. Redcliffe now shared her Majesty’s opinion that the perpe- trator of the deed was not Stanhope, for he had heard and seen enough in the conservatory of Oaklands to be enabled to judge — aided by the teachings of his experience in the mysteries of the human heart — that Stanhope, though un- principled and profligate, was not the man to go to such a tremendous extreme. It was therefore evident that the EOMINGIOOKS CO