The Argosy — page 320: what you’re looking at

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

Lady Arabella. 303 the British “‘ peeress.” ‘The market-women chose her name as:'a new expression of abuse for their wide vocabulary. The gamins chanted original songs of condemnation under her windows: indeed, hardly anything short of a republican outbreak could have roused such a disturbance. English, and titled though she was, the English verdict was against her. Punch, with his customary disloyalty where the sacredness of the nobility is concerned, improved on Gavarni’s caricatures, introducing the Earl, and several other prominent members of the illustrious family. The noble relations nearly went mad, and debated the propriety of immuring Lady Arabella in a private lunatic asylum ; a design only relinquished from a fear of the retribution the abandoned young woman would surely work, sooner or later. The sole person utterly unmoved was the Lady Arabella herself. Mrs. Mocourt wept herself half blind; the maids lived in hysterics ; at every sound in the street the men-servants rushed to barricade the entrance, under the impression that the enraged populace, headed by the Marquis and the Jockey Club, were coming to tear the household limb from limb. But her ladyship preserved her composure unbroken, and even began an elaborate ‘piece of embroidery as an occupation for her mornings. It was odd enough to see her sitting tranquilly at work, looking so beautiful and refined in her white draperies, while the people shouted her name in the streets, and her subordinates trembled in corners. She was deaf to the entreaties of those faithful adherents that she would leave Paris. Never, she said, until the storm subsided ; it should not be said she ran away. A short while and some new excitement diverted public attention. Lady Arabella was left in quiet, save so far as letters or daily demands from the Marquis were concerned. Then a private affliction befell her; the cherished bear died so sud- denly that his demise was attributed to poison, but the culprit could not be discovered. So Lady Arabella rushed back to England in such haste that her servants had scarcely time to pack the boxes. She absolutely paid the Earl a visit, and conducted herself with so complete an unconsciousness of having given offence, that the family sat aghast at her assurance, but dared not so much as whistle. | The Earl, softened by her charms, and the witty stories wherewith she lightened the patrician dulness of the castle, determined to set matters straight in spite of her ; he could not help loving the wayward creature. He knew that the Marquis still besieged her with letters ; newspapers averse to the family kept the affair fresh in people’s minds, and he found somewhere a brilliant idea upon which he decided to act. He would write to de Cherville in his niece’s name, pay the price of the murdered filly, and end the scandal. But no member of the Grahame race could ever do anything without first bringing the matter before the family conclave. The consequence GOMNIGOOO (CO)