The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 164: what you’re looking at

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THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. 152 *Well, then, I won't consent to it,” rejoined Dysart, doggedly. “I can’t afford to part with you, my deaf, on such cheap terms,” he added, with a coarse chuckling laugh. “But my resolution is unalterably taken,” she said: “and I tell you once for all that I will live with you no longer. I confess that I was unfaith- fal to ydu—that I learnt to love another. Bat even if there had been no provocation on your side, my guilt has every extenuation in the awfal ponishment it has received. . There was, however, all possible provocation on your part. You know how I once loved you—how completely wrapped up in you Tf was: and that fervid affection on my part only required to be cherished in order to last until the end. But instead of appreciating that illimitable love which I bestowed upon you—in- stead of recompensing me by your kindness for any sacrifice of fortune and position, wealth and comfort, which I made in becoming your wife— you treated me with cruelty, neglect, and indiffer- ence. Left for days and days alone—deserted by you from morning to night—was it singular that I yielded to temptation? You were not nigh to cheer me—to give me that moral strength which ever arises from a love that is reciprocated by its object: but you left me to solitude and loneliness —or else to the influence of that temptation. Ah! I can assure you that the siege which I sustained was long—my better feelings triumphed for months and months,—until in a moment when some flagrant neglect or downright cruelty on your part had left me weaker in mind than ever I was before —in that fatal moment, [ say, did I succumb. But my punishment has been dreadful—dreadful : and now I am resolved to endure your despotism no longer.” “T have listened to this long speech,” said Dy- sart, who was at firat overawed and even dismayed by the terrible earnestness of his wife’s tone, man- ner, and language,—‘ I have listened to this long speech with as much attention and patience as a juryman to an Old Bailey pleader: but I have no- thing to say in answer to it. All I want you to understand is that I don’t mean to part with you for a paltry thousand a-year. You are my wife— ‘and if you leave me, I will ferret you out and bring you back. If you dare to take refuge im your uncle’s house, ‘I'll penetrate inte its innermost recesses and drag you out. So there is my decision —and I'll write the same to the old fellow the first thing after breakfast in the morning. Now, then, let us go up to bed.” “Never again, Dysart,” said Ermestina, empha- tically, “shall you and FE press the same couch. The incidents of the last few hours have made sach an impression upon my mind, that I am resolved to leave you—I am determined to seperate from you.” “You are mad!” ejaculated Dysart, fariously, as he started from his seat. “ Dare to thwart me—and ¥’ll dig up the dead body of your paramour and bring it into this very house te scare and horrify yo into submission.” “Your menaces are vain and useless,” said Exrnes- tina: but her countenance grew ashy pale and her whole form trembled visibly beneath the blighting infuence of that awful threat which had smitten her lize a pestilenee. * Well, wo shall see,” exclaimed Dysart. “Now drop that knife—and follow me direct] y—or a death struggle must ensue between us :”—and he advanced towards her. “Keep off!” she cried in a frenzied tone: “I am not the mistress of my actions—I cannot control my rage—I am desperate f”’ “ Fool—mad woman!” muttered Dysart, return- ing to his seat. “Now let us reason quietly for a few minutes. You gave me a long speech just now —and it is but fair that you should hear one in return. Don't you think that, if you proclaim open war against me and get your precious old uncle to back you in it, — don’t you think, I say, that I could tell a pretty story about you? Now, what are the facts?—you appear to have forgotten them. Last June we left England very suddenly and went to the Continent. On our arrival there we resolve to remain abroad some time, Paris being so much to our liking. We send over and dismiss all the servants from our villa at Blackheath <A few weeks afterwards, business compels me to come secretly over to London: and I leave you in Paris. Ah! how you wanted to accompany me!—and when | refused, on account of the expense and so on, how earnestly you enjoined me not to go near the villa in case of being seen aud arrested! Your very importunity on that point made me suspect something — though I did not know what. Well, an coming to London, I did go to the villa:. and I rummaged through all your drawers to see if there were any letters or papers which you were fearful of falling into my hands. Bat instead of any such documentary evidence, I found a corpse concealed in the bath—and what was more, a rope- ladder along with it———” “Enough, sir—enough!” said Ernestma, in a hoarse voice, and with a dread quivering of the limbs. “ It is useless to prolong the present scene, so pain- fal to us both.” “ More painful to you, I fancy, than to me,’ ob- served Paul Dysart, with characteristic brutality. “ What the devil do you mean? You inflict upon me a long tirade of reproaches—you sum up al) my inisdeegs—and you will not listen to my counter- statement! But I choose to recapitulate those inci- denis,” he added, rising and placing his back against the door. Ernestina took a seat, and gazed abstractedly upon the fire which was smonidering in the grate. “Well, as I was saying,” continued her husband, now avimated with a fiendish desire to torture her as much as poseible, and also hoping thereby to reduce her to submission, as he had done on so Many, many previous occasions,—“as I was saying, I not only found the corpse but also the rope-ladder. The fea- tures were not so disfigured but that I was able to recognise who the deceased was: and the rope- ladder told the entire tale plainly enough. More- over, I called to mind your confusion when you met me on the night of our departure from the villa—your pretext about the loss of your ring—and several other circumstances which made the whole thing as plain as the sun at noon-day. Well, I hastened back to Paris—sccused ygu of your infidelity—and horrified you with an actount of the proofs thereof! Ah! how you humbled yourself then—how you fell at my feet—tore your hair—beat your bosom-—and watered the very floor with your tears! Yes—you understood it all—your paramour had been suffo- cated—perhaps even while you were packing Up | EOMICOOOKS. conn