The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 38: what you’re looking at

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

THE LEGEND 19 from your parent, and dwelling in the seclusion of this old chateau.”’ ‘‘ Alas! my dear friend,’’ responded Zoe, with a look and tone most pathetically sweet and full of an angelic resigna- tion, ‘‘ this colour which you behold upon my cheeks de- ceives you, but does not deceive myself. I feel within me the germs of dissolution, the seeds of decay. Consumption is busy at my vitals; it has already planted its fatal upon my cheeks.’ “ Good heavens, speak not thus!’ exclaimed Clarine, the tears gushing from her eyes. “It is distressing to a degree to hear one so young and so beautiful as you thus talk as if death were already looking you in the face.” ‘““ And yet it is so,’”’ rejoined Zoe, with a soft, sweet smile. ‘You perceive, Clarine, that I do not attempt to delude myself. When I was journeying to the south of France, I thought that I should like to find some seclusion, where, with only one friend, I might pass the remainder of my days, — and I have found it. I cling not to life. No, the approach of death will be welcomed by me. In the grave my own sorrows will cease, and the tomb will engulf the only obstacle to the alliance of Octavian with the object of his love. Yes, death will be welcome. You may wonder how, conscious as I am that the elements of dissolution are actively at work within me, I should seem desirous of prolonging my existence by seeking this genial clime of Southern France; you may marvel likewise why, anxious as I am to advance and meet death half-way, I did not rather settle myself in some con- genial northern atmosphere. But that would be suicidal, and it is a crime for mortals to do aught knowingly to abridge the life which God has given. I no more dare be guilty of such wickedness than I dare leap down a precipice. If my head be giddy and I know that by walking on the edge of an abyss I should fall in, and in its profundities find that death which will be so welcome, it nevertheless is my duty to avoid the brim of the fatal gulf. Now you comprehend, Clarine, wherefore, though welcoming death, I may seem to cling to life, and wherefore, while knowing that the germs of disease are expanding fatally within me, I may appear to be seeking health in this salubrious Pyrenean region.”’ Zoe spoke with a most touching pathos, and yet without studying thus to invest her language with so deep an interest. COnnicloookKks (C(O) im