The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 384: what you’re looking at

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

THE DESK 300 among themselves “that a daughter of the aristocracy would never have thrown herself away upon him unless she had very good reasons for so doing.”’ But how was Sir Frederick to act? To consign to oblivion everything he had heard was impossible; to live with Anastatia as before was not to be thought of; to abstain from making her acquainted with the fact that everything was discovered was even more than the cold, calculating worldly disposition of Sir Frederick Latham could bend himself to. For the first time in his life the great merchant found himself bewildered how to act, and as he rode home- ward a thousand painful thoughts conflicted in his brain. On reaching Tudor House, he learned that Anastatia had gone out in the carriage, and that her ladyship had left a message to the effect that she intended to proceed to town to call on her parents the Earl and Countess of Fordwich. Sir Frederick was glad that his wife was thus temporarily absent; it afforded him an opportunity of deliberating awhile on the course he ought to pursue. But feeling as if the confined air of his study oppressed him, he walked forth into his grounds. While there he beheld a carriage drive up to the gate, and as the equipage entered, he saw that it was Queen Indora’s. The queen herself was not, however, in it; the occupants were Mr. Redcliffe, Christian, and Christina. The twins had come to pay the usual visit of courtesy after having been invited to the entertainment at Tudor House, while Mr. Redcliffe also deemed it suitable to pay his respects in the same quarter, inasmuch as he himself had likewise been invited, though he declined the invitation; and moreover Sir Frederick was the British financial agent for that royal lady whom Mr. Redcliffe was engaged, when circumstances should permit, to conduct to the altar. CORnnICLOOOKS (CO)