The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 367: what you’re looking at

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

336 REYNOLDS’ WORKS ‘This 1s the Lady Indora’s villa,’ answered Christina, ‘‘and I am Miss Ashton.” . ‘“ Good evening, Miss Ashton,”’ rejoined Captain Stanley, and springing upon his horse, he rode away from the spot. Christina’s feelings had been suddenly and powerfully wrung by the incident in respect to Lord Octavian Meredith. She had no unmaidenly desire for the young nobleman to be convinced that she loved him, but, on the other hand, she was averse to the idea that he should suppose she had been favouring the suit of another. For she saw at once that sup- posing it to be really the case that she had thus favoured another suit, and if it were indeed a reality that her heart or her hand was engaged elsewhere, she ought at once to have mentioned the circumstance on the preceding evening at Tudor House as the best means of silencing the allusions to his own love which were made by Lord Octavian. She perceived that he, putting his own construction on the fact of her being with a handsome young gentleman, as Captain Stanley was, would naturally conclude that she had acted coquettishly, capriciously, and even immodestly in not having told him on the previous night that her heart was engaged to another. The idea of all this was most repugnant to the pure notions and delicate feelings of our amiable heroine. On passing into the grounds attached to the villa, Christina felt so annoyed and distressed that she could not immediately enter the house. If she did, she would be courting questions on the part of the queen, — questions which might turn upon a topic that she did not like to approach. Therefore, to compose her thoughts and collect her self-possession, Chris- tina rambled through the garden. It is but the strictest justice to our heroine to declare, most positively and un- reservedly, that she had not the slightest anticipation of what was to follow, or else not for worlds would she have placed herself in a position to encounter it. Twice had she slowly made a tour oi the garden; for the third time was she taking the round, with the intention of entering the villa when this last stroll was completed. She reached that extremity which joined the field, the point that was remotest from the house, and was most enveloped in the shade of the umbrageous trees, — the spot, in a word, where Sagoonah’s interviews ECORNIClOOKS (E(0)