The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 129: what you’re looking at

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

116 THE MYS(ikIKB UF THE COULT. purer and chaster kind than that which could alone of my cnthusiasm in respect to the Marquis ut eceupy the heart of the elder young lady. | Villebelle, might endeavour to wean me fruin that While their mother was paying her visit to Lady | devoted love with which I regard him—might re- Macdonald, Juliana and Constance, each dressed in | munstrate against the impropriety of our clandee- an elegant negligée, were seated together, as alroaiy | t-ne mostings—and might even be cold t him when described, in the apartment where their mornings | you were present at our interviews. All this have I were generally passed: for although it was now | apprehended really the afternoon so far as the proper divisions of “But have your fears been realized ?” interrupted time went, yet it is always morning in the fashion- | Juliana. “On the contrary, have I not assisted you able world until the dinner-hour, even though this/in those meetings? have I not even kept watch should be as late as six or seven o'clock. The two | when the Marquis, stealthily entering the garden, sisters had been conversing on the incident of the | has encountered you there? was it not I who en- previous day: namely, the story which their mother | listed our maid Mary-Anne in your interest, and had told them relative to William Deveril ; and | induced her to become the bearer of your notes ?” by a not unnatural transition they were ledonto| “Yes—all this is true, dearest Juliana; and I was topics of a more tender, intimate, and secret cha- | wrong ever to entertain the slightcst misgiving in racter. respect to your kindness. But now tell me,” con- “1 know that you have something in your mind, | tinued Constance, “who is the object of this love dear Juliana,” said Constance, pursuing the strain | which your heart cherishes?—for that you do love, into which the discourse had gradually glided; “and | your lips have admitted—yes, and your looks have though I have noticed it for some few months past, | confirmed the avowal !” and have often been going to question youon the; “No, no, Constance-—-I cannot tell you,” mur- subject, yet I did not like to do so.” mured Juliana. “I am fearful that you will ridi- * And why not?” asked Juliana, the rich blood | cule—you will despise me!” mantling upon her cheeks. “Do you think that I| “ Impossible, dearest sister!” said Constance. should have refused you my confidence? No: I| “For ali the reasons that you yourself have just should have been pleased if you had sought it. But | given when enumerating the services you have ren- it involves a secrot which I could not bring myeelf | dered me, am I bound not merely to pay yuur feel- to conicss of my own accord. It is a revelation | ings ae mach respect as I claim for my own, but which ono shrinks from making willingly, and which | likewise to give you such succour as may lie in my must be asked for before it can be breathed even in | power.” the ears of a sister.” “ But in this case there are no such aids requisite,” “I have not questioned you before, Juliana,” was | responded Juliana, evidently approaching with the reply given by Constance, “because you are reluctance the full revelation of her secret, and sunetimes so impetuous and hasty——” therefure gradually preparing her sister for the final ‘“‘Ah! but in this respect I should not have heen | avowal by means of hints and allusions. “ In my bv," interrupted the elder sister. ‘And beside, you | case, Constance, there need be no interchange of Lave a perfect right to seck my fullest confidence. | letters—no clandestine meetings in the garden—no Have you rot given me your own? am I not ac- | scaling of the walle—no posting some ono to kecp quainted wish. the secret of your love 7” watch—no entrusting the secret to a maul——”” “Oh: cnen,” exclaimed the blushing Constance, “Tam to understand that the confession you are now about to make is of the same tender character! | ment. “If all these accessories and aids are not Iam giad of it—I am delighted at the idea that | required, it must be because the object of your love you yourself also cherish an affection of the heart: ES be distasteful to our mother, our rela- “I cannot understand you,’ observed Constance, gazing upon her sister with surprise and bewildor- for I have sometimes felt uneasy—I know not why | tives, and our friends.” -—at the thought of being alone as it were——” “ Here again you are wrong, Constance,” intor- ‘In experiencing the bliss of love?” added Ju- | rupted Juliana. “Listen! ‘When our mother first liana with an arch amile upon her lip, but still with | perceived, a few months ago, that the Marquis of a blush upon her cheeks: then as her fine bust | Villebelle began to pay you sume attention and that heaved with a profound sigh, she added in a low and appeared pleased with his courtesies aud his almost mournful voice, “I am afraid, Constance, | assiduities, she purposely insulted him, though in that we can scarcoly congratulate each other upon | her own dignified and coldly serene manner; and the objects in who our affertions are respectively | this was done deliberately in order to convince him contred.” that his suit for your hand would nover receive a “ What!” exclaimed Consrance: “do you mean | sanction from her lips. The result of that insult to share my mother’s prejudice against Villebelle? | was that the Marquis found himsclif compelled te Ab! this has been the source of my uneasiness, | abstain from visiting at the house. But still our when I have reflected that I loved so fondly, and | mother was not satisfied with having thus excluded that you being ignorant of what love i oral net him from the mansion. She sought to poison your enter into the spirit of al T experince nd wold | mind against him, so as effectually to raise up a thus sooner or later be led to view this love of mine | barrier between yuurselves. This she did, not point- with suspicion and displeasure.” : | ediy as if she really believed you loved him—but by “ But I hope, my dear Constance, that you have ( innendo and by casual remark, always m your pre- mever feared I should betray you?” said Juliana, | sence, but not as if her words were expressly spoken with a reproachful look. for you, and for you alone. She could not deny “Oh—betray me—no! I was well aware that | that he wes really what he represented himseif— you were incapable of such perfidy towards me. | that he was well connected—and that he belonged But I treubled lest you, dear Juliana, sharing none! to one of the oldest families in France: but she (CO COMME MOO