The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 283: what you’re looking at

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

a sa nama THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURY. £72 : “ Spies P? ejaculated the Marquis, disdainfully. “If there be any, they are in your employment.” The baronet said not another word, but hurried down stairs. In the passage below he met ald Mar- shall, to whom he said m an angry voice, “ Dv you permit your daughters to play the part of eavas- droppers towards your guests ?” The old man made no re ply, but turning on his heel, passed into the bar-parlour—and the barangt quitted the house. CHAPTER LVIL THE MISSIVE AND THE RESPONSE. Ir was perfectly true that Kate Marshall had been : ligtening at the door of the roqm in which the pre- | Thig note was ceding interview took place, It was not through any impertinent curiosity ; but because she had naturally apprehended eome unpleasant scene: for although Sir John Marston had declared thet it was entirely in the interest of the Marqyis he had called, yet the ‘—and then opening the trap-door, ‘pigeons in a low, peculiar, but caressing tune of our readers. The contents therefore of this billet were as follow :— “* Duarust Faizwp,—The Marquis of Villebelle is here on his way to France with a young lady whom he pro- poses to make his wife. Sir Johu Marston threatens to follow them uncessingly, and forbid the ceremony wherever they may seek to have it performed. From the various remarks let fall by them, end from some few cie- cumstances of your own life which you have os occasions ' mentioned to me, I have no difficulty in recognizing your _bushand in the Margais of Villebelle, What is to be done? or fs anything to be donteP Has the Marquis spoken truly that you heve freed him to the extent of your power? I await your inetractions. in the most minute charac- ters upon the tiniest piece of paper that would pos- sibly serve for ite contents. Kate folded it up in the emallest compass—tied a piece of silk rouad it summoned her shrewd keen-sighted Kate had not failed to observe | VYoice,—or rather with certain sweet melodious that the French nobleman (as ahe now knew him to be) turned pale and looked agiteted the moment the baronet’s card was put into hia hand, She therefare suspected that Sir John Marston’s visit was not al- together of se frendly a character se he had wished to make it sppear; and having had all her sym- pathies enlisted to an unaccountable degree on behalf of the lovers, she felt anxious to secortain the nature of any impediment that might arise fo sounds sent forth from her charming li four beautiful doves of the carrier-breed quickly ac- ewered her call, and perched upan the edge of the open trap-door. Her selection was promptly made; and extending her arm, the particular bird thus chosen at once hopped ypon her wrist, Drawing it in—-addressed in, she closed the trap-door egain the bird in fondling terms—-and fastened the little billet , under the right wing, Thea she put the feathered interfere with the consummation of their happiness. | messenger through the trap-door again. I at once Kate had therefore listened: but as the converss- tion within that room, i gradually as- sumed the form of a revelation to herself, Asso- isting certain observations made by the Marquis end the Baronet, with a few circumstances alread y kaown tq hereelf, che was ongbled “ to put two and ; ‘two together,” as the phrase is, end arrive at the eolutiun of @ mystery. Thus was it that ag ebe vtened she beaame opening of the door by start away like « ‘ soared up perpendicularly to a great height, sa that for nearly a minute she kept it in view through that trap-door of only a foot square; and then she sud- denly saw it dart off ate tangeot in 9 north-western “Tf my fair friend be at home when the bird ar- rives,” said Kate to herself, as she let the trap-dour fly up again, “I shell receive an angwer in a little more and more wterested in , more than s couple of hours.” She then descended to the bar-pariour, where she drawn in to play e part communicated to her parents end sisters all that ale had overheard in the room occupied by hor gueste—the disouvery she had thence made im re- heeding the ejaculation of apect ta a certain intimate female friend—and the In this room the reader has already on a former — the gay, good-humoured, and hand- | eome Marshell. The chamber was prettily fitted up, and had an elegant French time-picce , etanding upon a chest of drawers. In the roof was the litte trap door of a foot square, kept shut by in a cupboard the food requisite fur the beautiful breed of pigeons which Miss Marshall possessed. Immodiately spon entering this chamber, Kate sat town; and taking writing materials from a drawer, together with a manuscript book affording the date, she penned a note; and although to the unini- Gatod eye it would have scemed a mere jargon more | (acom some little time upon these matters; but it is not necessary to place their conversation upon record. Meanwhile the Marquis of Villebelle had some difficulty in solacing hia well-beloved Constance. The threate of Sir John Marston wore a very aexi- ous aspect to her mind. In short, she foresaw that if they were really carried out, they would have the effoct of preventing any marriage-ceremony taking place at all;—and that he ewesld persevere in his obstructive cquree, was to be inferred from the reso- lute tone and manner which he had adopted. Bat what was Constance to do? She felt that she was too seriously compromised to think of returning home: but on the other hand, if she remained with the Marquis, she feared that it could only be as his mistress. True, the could not be really looked upon as valid, if solemnised between, them: but it would nevertheless be a means of ap- prehensible than Egyptian hieroglyphics, we peasing her last ecruplos cre she abandoned heruelf NOOK CO