The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 392: what you’re looking at

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

THE BANK-NOTES 361 portion of the contents of the cash-box had evidently found their way into the hands of Lord Rushbrook. ‘‘ And thus Anastatia,’’ said the merchant to himself, ‘‘ has robbed her husband for the sake of her brother. This is but too evident. But yet I am as far off as ever from compre- hending what meant the allusion of that false Lascar to the safe and the cash-box. This is a strange mystery, but I must strive hard to unravel it.” During the remainder of the drive homeward the merchant continued to reflect how he should act in respect to his wife, but without coming to any positive decision. On reaching Tudor Lodge he found a note from Anastatia, to the effect that her mother, the Countess of Fordwich, had been taken very ill, and that she (Anastatia) therefore purposed to remain with her parent until the evening. Sir Frederick was not sorry; the delay would afford him additional leisure to settle his mind as to the plan to be pursued in respect to that wife whom he believed to have been so guilty. He dined by himself, and afterward walked forth into his grounds, it being a beautiful moonlit evening in that autumn season of the year of which we are writing. While thus rambling in the garden, Sir Frederick Latham revolved in his own mind every particular which he had re- ceived from the lips of Madame Angelique in the forenoon, and he thought to himself that he had not been precise enough in his questions for the purpose of ascertaining who was the paramour that had been spoken of. He fancied that there were other queries he might have put, minuter particu- lars which he might have gleaned, and he determined to visit Madame Angelique again forthwith. He was a cautious man, as the reader has seen; he wished to do nothing rashly; it was consistent with his character to obtain as many details as possible in respect to circumstances of such grave im- portance. He ordered his horse to be saddled, and this time he took a groom to attend upon him; for the road from Balham Hill to Brixton is in some parts lonely, and Sir Frederick had the Lascar prominent amongst other images in his mind. | The evening, as we have said, was beautifully moonlit, and a distance of about three miles and a half was soon accom- plished. The merchant did not, however, wish his domestic to perceive where he intended to call, for fear lest the villa EOMINGIOOKS (CO)