The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 224: what you’re looking at

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

THE COMMITTEE OF PRIVILEGES 199 man took his departure almost immediately after the en- gagement for the rooms was made. As the new lodger came totally unprovided with any effects beyond those which she had on her, and as the circumstances of their arrival, as well as their looks, excited her suspicion that there was something wrong, Mrs. Hutton had listened at the door of the parlour where they bade each other farewell. She distinctly heard the young gentleman say, ‘ Adieu, Eliza, for ever!’’ but she could not catch the reply which the lady made. The gentleman went away. For some hours after he was gone, the lady sat statue-like, as if plunged into the deepest despair. After awhile she in- quired for a needle and thread; she took a small piece of velvet, and therewith she made‘a little bag. Into this she put her watch and her wedding-ring, as well as another ring, which she took from her bosom; she cut off a long lock of her hair, which was of raven darkness, and this likewise she put into the little bag, which she then sewed up. ‘To the bag she attached a black ribbon, which she put around her neck, securing the bag in her bosom. All this she did in the presence of Mrs. Hutton, not amidst weeping, but in the silence of cold, blank despair. When her task was finished, she raised her countenance, looked at Mrs. Hutton, and said, ‘ This shall be for my babe, if I live to give birth to it. The contents of that bag may some day serve as a clue, if ever such be needed, when I shall be dead and gone.” Mrs. Hutton gently asked, “ A clue to what? ’’ whereat the lady suddenly started up and fixed upon her a look so full of wild suspicion that she was frightened lest the unfortunate being was going mad. In the middle of the ensuing night the stranger lady — for she had given no name — abruptly quitted the house, leaving the front door wide open; so that Mrs. Hutton now felt convinced that grief had really turned her brain, and she resolved to speak to the local authorities in the morning. But the lady never came back. Some time afterward she read in an old newspaper that happened to fall into her hands a narrative of the tragic events which had occurred at Oaklands, and she was more than half-inclined to fancy that the strangers whom she had seen at her house were none other than Bertram Vivian and the Duchess Eliza; but afraid of getting into some trouble if it were CORnNICLOOOLKS (C©)