The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 251: what you’re looking at

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

CHAPTER XVIII CAPTAIN STANLEY THE reader cannot have forgotten how Captain Stanley rescued Christina from the power of the Burker in the lane near Shrubbery Villa, Notting Hill. The young officer was at once smitten with a feeling of interest on behalf of that beauteous girl, and he had solicited permission to call at the villa. Christina had assured him that Queen Indora would give him a welcome reception, and she thus, with the strictest propriety and modesty, avoided the encouragement of a visit to herself specially. But almost immediately after that incident which rendered them acquainted came the hurricane of events that was to accomplish so material a change in the circumstances of the twins. For some few weeks Captain Stanley saw Christina no more, but after awhile he met her again at Marchmont House, and the interest he had at first experienced in her quickly expanded into a still more tender feeling. Now in his twenty-fifth year, Robert Stanley was remark- ably handsome. His countenance not only possessed the perfection of masculine beauty, but it likewise seemed as a mirror to reflect all the generous emotions of his soul. Of the highest principles, of untarnished reputation, of a lofty intelligence, and of fascinating manners, as well as being the heir to a wealthy baronetcy, Captain Stanley might have almost made his own choice of a wife amongst the beauties of the society which by his position he fre- quented, but never until he beheld Christina had he seen one of her sex who made any impression upon his heart. It was therefore a first love that he now experienced, and the more he was enabled to study the character and disposition of the young Duke of Marchmont’s sister, the better did he 222 Gomicdoc <S (E()