The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 365: what you’re looking at

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

ee te acca atte aaa antenatal 854 woman, clasping her hands appealingly, and casting her shuddering looks around, “do not allude to it. The very walls have ears. Oh, my dear Dr. Ferney! did you not assure me but a short time back, at your house, that my secret was sacred —that it was my own mystery, into which you would never seek to penetrate? I beseech and implore that you will not fly from your word!” ‘“ But what am I to do in this present case? Let us think no more of the past for the moment. Here, Lady Saxondale, has a foul murder come to my knowledge. It is a murder perpetrated by means of a venom which I myeelf discovered; and I-also am mado the discoverer of the awful t'agedy it has produced. The finger of God is in all this: it is heaven iteelf which is prompting me on to bring to justice the perpctrator of that crime! What then, I ask, am I to do? This crime was committed under your roof. God forbid that I should attribute it to you! No—it were im sible! If you then be guiltiges, will you nut aid me in fixing upon the guilty one ?” * Oh, but all this is most dreadful !” murmured Lady Saxondale, still with clasped hande—etill with appealing looks-—still with ineffable anguish in every lineament of her pale countenance. “If an ex- posure be made, must I not confess that I purloined the phial of poison from your house? What will be thought of me? I shall be ruined! A lady who visits a single man stealthily—who is admitted by him into all the mysteries of his laboratory ——Ah, Dr. Ferney have mercy upon me—I beseech you to have mercy upon me!—or else take a dagger and plunge it into this bosom !” Lady Saxondale did not throw herself upon her knees as she thas spoke: but her anguish was truly unfeigned—her inquietude was too great not to render her affliction genuine. As she sat by the physician’s side upon the sofa, she leant towards him with an agony of appeal in her looks, her atti- tude, and her gestures; and as she gave utterance to the closing words of her well nigh frenzied speech, she pressed her hands convulsively to that bosom for which she invoked the dagger as an alternative rather than an exposure. “Oh, my God! what am I to do?” murmured the physician: and half-averting his countenance, be raised one hand to his pale forehead. “ What am I to do?” “What are you to do?” cried Lady Saxondale. “ Bury the subject in oblivion !” “I cannot—I dare not,” responded Ferney, shaking his head solemnly, but with a look of the deepest affliction. “If I conceal my knowledge of this crime, I become as it were an accessory to it: and how shall I ever satisfy my own conscience ? But tell me, Lady Saxondale, do your suspicions fall upon any one in your household? Reflect— consider—to whom did you ever impart the secret of that subtle poison? You must have spoken of it to some onc: tell me who it was! For the voice of that murdered woman cries up to heaven for vengeance; and heaven itself has marked me as its instrument in bringing the murderer to justice. Nay, more—does it not almost seem as if there were retribution in all this?—as if I had pene- trated too deeply inte the mysteries of nature—had forth unholy secrete—had tasted of the forbidden tree of knowledge—and am now to be Se a @ THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. punished for my fault? For think you not, Lady Saxondale, that it will be a cruel ordeal for me to proclaim all this to the knowledge of justice and involve your name in the transaction ?”’ “Dr. Ferney,” said her ladyship, now suddenly recalling to mind her predetermination to assert her empire over him through the mediam of that love of which she knew herself to be the object,— “J believe you once entertained sumething like a feeling of friendship towards me — perhaps more than friendship-——” “Yes, yes: it was more—it é¢ more!” interrupted the physician; “for the sentiment is deathiess ! Need I tell you that from the first moment I beheld you at my mother’s house nineteen years ago, your image has never been absent from my mind? You know it—you know it. I gave you that assurance the other day, when you visited my house: and it is the truth—as I repeat it again this evening! Bat there is a duty, Lady Saxondale, which I have to perform; and though my own heart should break in accomplishing that duty—though it should crash me down with sorrow into the dust to drag your name before the tribunals of the country—yet what alternative have I? Alas! that duty must be per- formed! Tell me therefore—on whom must oar suspicions settle themselves P” ‘“‘ Dr. Ferney,” said her ladyship, “do not tell me that you ever entertained the slightest love for me. No, no—it is impossible—you could not! If you had, you would not torment me thus now. Good God! do you not comprehend the immensity of the evil you will work ?” “JT see but two things which oan tell against you,” answered the doctor. “The first is that you visited my house. Surely the purity of your own life, and my unsullied reputation, will combine to disarm scandal in that respect? And after all, may not a lady visit a physician? Then, as for your taking the phial—the deed can be well explained as arising from the curiosity of the moment. It is not a watch —nor & purse—nor a jewel—nor anything valuable ; and Lady Saxondale need not fear the pusitive im- putation of dishonesty on that account.” “‘ Nevertheless, I conjure you, my dear Dr. Fer- ney, not to urge this matter. Yes—I entreat, I implore you,” continued Lady Saxondale, in accents of the moet earnest pleading, “ not to bring it before the world!” “Oh! what would you have me think ?” exclanmed the physician, suddenly fastening looks of mi horror and uncertainty upon Lady Saxondale. “ No, no—suffer not such a terrible suspicion to remain in my mind. For your own sake, therefore, lose not s moment in farnishing the clue to the unravelment of this mystery.” “ But that suspicion which has struck you,” said her ladyship, aghast and trembling. “Tt is a hideous one—and every moment does it become stronger,” rejoined Ferney. “ Indeed, there is an excitement in my mind such as for years [ have not experienced. Would to heaven that all this had not occurred.” “Dr. Ferney,” said her ladyship, in tones that were now really hollow and sepulchral—not to her own ear alone, but to that of the physician,—“ you are dragging me on toa revelation which I shudder to contemplate.” “Qh! then my suspicion is confirmed,” mur- OO) SS ae