The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 56: what you’re looking at

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THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. ad with Louisa. But he stayed also to tea;—and in the evening they sate in the garden and conversed upon all the topics that were now so dear to them. Hie arm clasped her waist-—and her dark tresses fell in rich clusters upon his shoulders. But not an impure thought—not an unholy desire mazred the divinity of that bliss which the young man expe- rienced: while innocent bappiness beamed in Louisa’s eyes—those eyes that seemed so much of heaven's own bleased light brought down to earth ! And it was as they were thus seated in the seals- sion of a ahedy arbour, unconscions of all that was passing elsewhere—absorbed in their own delicious dream of love—that through the hedge ferocious eyes ware glaring npon them,-—eyes in which devouring desires mingled with en intense envy and a burning hate. For Bernard Andiley, the Minor Canon of Canter- bury Cathedral, was watching them thus: and zetzeating after a while as noiselessly and as unob- served as he had approached the verdant baszier, he manttered with a concentrated hitterness of tone and 8 look of desperate resolve, “By beaven! she shall yet be mine--abe aball be maize !” CHAPTER XI. 2NE FOUR GMPERS. THE incidents contained in the two preceding chep- ters, which have been devoted to the charming Louisa, 6ll up the interval that had elapsed from the seperation of the sisters in the middle of Angust, and bing dewn that portion of the narrative to the mid- dle of September. We must now therefore take a teznporary leave of the cottage in the vicinage of Canterbary, and trans- port our readers to the mansion of Mrs. Owen .at Richmond. it was about nine o'clock in the morning, the day after the visit of the Prince of Wales and the Mar- quis of Leveson to that lady’s abode, that we ghall find the three eldest sistere—Agatha, Emma, and Julia—assembled in the back drawing-room. The weather was charming—the windows were open—and while the two last-named girls were gazing forth upon the beautiful prospect which the casement com- manded, Agatha was lounging .in,.an indolent man- ner upon a cushion which she bad thrown on the carpet. In this attitude of complete abandonment abe tumed over the pages of an album in which the Prince Regent had himself written a few lines of tolerable poetry, and which also contained effusions from the pens of several personages mora. distin- guished for their great names than their great talents. As for Mary, the youngest aister—she was closetted at that moment with her mother, in this lady's own chamber ; and from the observations which paased between the three girls in the drawing-room, it was evident that the circumstance was a source of much interest and speculation with them. “I wonder whether mamma is giving Mary pre- cisely the same lecture which she has already beatowed on each of us in our turns,” said Emma, with an arch amile, full of wicked meaning. “I suppose she will tell Mary how far to gc and where she must stop short,” obeerved Julia, laugoing. “And it is to be hoped that she will follow that advice as well as we have done,” said Agatha, looking up from her recumbent pasition on the carpet and smiling with even a more charming wickedpess than either of her sisters. “ Hush |” whispered Emma as footsteps approached the door. The next moment Mary, the youngest gig],. entered the room. Zimma and Julia bounded towards her— and Agatha, rising from the-floor, also. advanesd. and joined the group. Mary was pale and agitated: she even looked as if she had been frightened—and her young hosgm was rising and falling with rapid palpitations. The reader will be pleased to recollect that, abe was only sixtesn—whereas Agatha, the eldest girl, wastwenty- two. Emma and Julia were respectively twenty and eighteen. “Well, Mary dear—what has mamma been paying to you ?’ inquired her three sisters, all as it were ia the same breath. “But come aud ait down and tell us everything.” “Oh! I dare say you are enlightened enough ppon the subject,” exclaimed the young girl petulantly, as her sisters led her to the sofa and placed themselves around her: and as ahe spoke, her eyes filled with tears and her chepks burnt with crimeon bigahes. “Calm your agitation, Mary-rget rid of this ex- citement,” said Agatha, in a soothing tone. “ We can pretty well guesa what our mather has bean whis- © paring 1 TOUr eare—ane depaad gpon it, the advice is good.” “ But it took me so mach by garpgiee,” mnemured Mary, in a broken and tremulous tone: ‘and it aces to have left ppon my mind a.feeling ae if I had experienced a shock-~—" “Which feeling.will apeedily.sveer off, .my.lore,” said Agatha. “But since you knew all this,” explaimed Mary, looking reproachfully upon her three.sistess, ‘why did you never drop, me 8 hint or .whigper a,;werd in my ears, 20 as to prepere me for the extraanjinary lessons which I have just rpeegived--qnd from the lips of my own mother too ?” “Mamma is a woman of the world, you see, Mary,” replied Agaihs; “and she is resqlyed ghet her daughters shall be wamen of the warld also. You blame us for our reserve towards you ou certain par ticulars—but it was not for us ta.undertake the task of initiation. Had we babbled prematumly and gaasipped with you aa you seem to think, we epght to have done, we should have neglected one of -fhe prin- cipal lessons that mamma taught us and which has no doubt been duly impressed upon your mind within the last hour.” “ XYes—duplicity,” exqlaimed Mary,.with a pitter- | ness of tone and.an agitation of. manuner. ‘ Henoce- forth I am to use all these gmilen and all, that gaicty — which until naw were the fyec,and spantancous ebullition of spirits natyxally buoyant and. a dispo- sition unaffectedly am.to use those smiles and that gaiety, I repeat, as a veil to cover aelehness, hypocrisy, artifice, and deceit. Oh! I am to exist as a living lie—a breathing falsehood—ananimated cheat ~—the impersonation of .untruth——” “ And what will you gain by all the ingenuouaness, frankness, and artlessness in the world?” demanded Agatha. “Think you, my poor girl, that the dry bread moistened with the tears of suffering virtue is very palatable ?—or will you not agree with us that it is better to enjoy luxuries of every kind, though pur CONNEC MOO SS COMM