The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 330: what you’re looking at

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

THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. dressed and with a dark veil over her countenance, was shown in: but the instant she crossed the threshold, and even before she raised the veil, the Baronet guessed who she was. Nor was he mis- taken: for advancing towards him, she lifted her veil and disclosed the features of Nell Gibson. “ Ah! I am glad you are come—I am delighted to see you are safe and sound,” he exclaimed, with the most unafiected sincerity. “Bnt, good heavens! how did you escape from those murderous wretches ? I have been tortured with the cruellest alarms con- cerning you. At one moment I was resolved to give information at Bow Street of all that had oo- curred: but then I feared that if you had really escaped after all, I should only be compromising you —and ékaf, for many reasons, you are well aware I would not do for the world. Besides which, I felt assured that if you escaped the dangers and the violence that were imminent at the moment I left the hut, you would escape altogether.” While the Baronet was giving vent to these rapidly uttered expressions. Nell Gibson seated her- self near the fire, and gazed upon him with a species of tender interest that seemed strange indeed with one who led such a life and possessed such a heart as she. “ And how knew you,” she said, in a gentle and even tremulous voice, “that such dangers menaced me f” “Tn the first place because I discovered, when it was too late, that I had revealed to a set of mis- creants the kindness you had shown towards me,” answered the Baronet ;—* I mean that man, that woman, and that youth whom I accompanied back to the hut. Moreover, when I recovered my senses while bound band and foot in the room below, I overheard the accusation of ‘traifrese’ levelled against yourself, and then your piercing screams, Ah! Ellen, I can assure you that those screams have rung in my ears ever since {” “And the young girl whom you brought away with you?” said Nell Gibson, inquiringly. “Qh! she is safe and will be taken care of,” returned the Baronet. “But wherefore was she borne to the hut ?” “Do not ask me,” said Nell Gibson. “For no good, you may re! Ah! you do not appear satisfied with what I say? Well then, it was to make her as bad as I am.” “Enough !” ejaculated Sir Dougias Huntingdon, with a shudder; and then he fixed his eyes upon Nell Gibson, ag if to scrutinize thoroughly her entire ap e. “Ah! you may well look at me,” she cried in a tone of bitterness: “I am no doubt changed since first you knew me. That was four years ago. I was then a merry laughing girl of between fifteen and sixteen--yes, and an innocent girl too——” “Do not think of the past, Ellen,” said the Baronet, scarcely able to suppress a sigh as he mentally:compared the young woman as she now appeared with the young girl as she was a few years back. You last night perilled your life to save mine: tell me, then, what can I do for you? : “You will give me the hundred guineas for this letter,” she sald, producing the one which he had | gary written at the hut. “That is all I ask of you— and it will be the means of saving my life.” *Oan you fear for a moment that I shall hesi- 317 tate?” exclaimed the Baronet. “I will give you the hundred guineas wherewith to appease those vile men; and I will give you another husdred guileas—aye, or even three or four hundred, for yourself.” “No—not a shilling—not a farthing,” said Nell Gibson, firmly and decisively. “Since the day I left you, never, never have I sought succour at your hand: and I would sooner perish—yes, perish miserably—than receive such succour from you /” “But wherefore, Ellen?” said the Baronet, in amazement. “ There is something unnatural— something perverse in this.” “ No—it is natural enough, if you do but under- stand the mind of a woman. Since I left you I have endured many and many privations: I have known what it is to want bread—aye, I have known what it is to feel starvation! Or else do you think, if it had not been through some desperate necessity, I should ever have fallendinto the com- pany in which you fouod me last night? But even when perishing as it were with famine, I never once applied to you.” * But you were wrong, Ellen—you were wrong,” skid the Baronet. “ Whatever had occurred, my purse would always have been open to you.” “Oh! yes—I knew that ; and it was the thought of your kindness that stang me to the very quick. And therefore, so far from being wrong,” she ex- claimed, suddenly assuming a proud look that for a moment rendered her really and truly hand- some—“so far from being in the wrong,” she re- peated, “I was in the right: for although fallen so low and become so debased, degraded, and vile, I still had my own little feelings of pride——” “With what wretched sophistry have you de. luded yourself!” interrupted the Baronet. “ Was I not your seducer ?—did I not inflict the most terrible wrong upon you which selfish man can possibly perpetrate towards confiding woman ?” “ Aye—if we had always stood in the light of seducer and victim,” said Nell Gibson, “it would have been different. Zhen I should have had a claim upon you, and would not have hesitated to assert it. But if you inflicted the first wrong upon me, I subsequently inflicted another upon you. I proved faithleas to you when you loved me so well and cherished me so fondly : I deceived you most grossly—and there was something vile—yes, be- yond all expression vile, in my conduct when I robbed and plundered you to expend the proceeds of my iniquity upon a paramour. Well then, in- stead of remaining your victim I became a wrong- doer towards you: and every claim that I might have upon your consideration was for- feited. YWes—I felt all this; and again I tell you that I would sooner have died—aye, have perished miserably—than have received as the pittance of charity, that which once came from a noble bounty! Rather would I have sunk down through famine, than have obtained from your pity that which I once receivédd from your fondest love ! Besides, when I left you I was clothed in silk and satin—and no earthly consideration would have in- duced me reappear before you in the rags of beg: | “ But still,” observed the Baronet, much moved by the language which thus poured with such un- doubted sincerity from the young woman's lips— FRCS eg ee om Ob! ome ST SS re TEPC pr a ra as ELOOO® COM Ss CO