The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 126: what you’re looking at

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ee THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. 115 CHAPTER CVIL THE DISGUISED ONS. It was evening—a beautiful evening in the middie of September; and a gentle breese had succeeded the heat of a day of more than usual sultriness for that period of the year. Queen Indora was walking in the garden attached to her beautifal | the countenance—by the until this minute eomprehended what female beauty was: bat now he began to understand what was meant by regular and well chiselled features —by eyes of splendid lustre—by nobly arching brows that gave intelligence and lofty frankness to magnificent symmetry of shepe—and by the blending of all that elegance, fulness, and dignity which combined to render Indora at once the fascinating and the queeh-like woman she was. Yes—all this did the villa in the neighbourhood of Notting Hill and | Burker begin to appreciate; and the brutal raf- Bayswater: she was alone, and reflecting upon the incidents of her past life. The purple which blended with the other hues of her garments, in- dicated that she was in mourning, Her dress was half European, half oriental. She wore the flow- ing skirt beionging to the feminine garb of the former style: a epecies of caftan, and the under- garinent developing the rich proportions of her bust, were of the Eastern fashion. The jetty masses of ber hair hung far down her back, below her waist, and seemed like a thick ebon veil which might be drawn at will over the counte- nance. There was certain degree of pensiveness ex- pressed in the looks of the Queen, whioh was not however altogether sorrowful. Subjects for mourn- ing and rejoicing were blending in her thoughts: on one side was her father’s death—on the other the assurance which she had received from Clement Redcliffe that he would antept her hand. Still Indora was thoughtful: she walked with a slow pace; and wher reaching a fountain in the midst of the garden, she stood there gazing upon the flow of the cryetal water, and giving way to the reflections that were uppermost in her mind. From amidst a knot of trees an ominous coun- tenance was surveying her. Without preserving any unnecessary mystery in the present instance, we will at once declare that the individual thus eoncealed was none other than Barney the Burker. Nothing could be more admirable than the feilow’s disguise—nothing more cumplete than his trans- mogrification, so to speak. He wore the wig with frizzly curle which the Duke of Marchmont had given him: his countenance was stained duskily with the dye which he had obtained from the same source: he wore spectacies; and a large overhang- ing moustache concealed the malformation of his upper lip. In respect to apparel, the Barker had avery decent appearance; and he no longer re- tained the huge club which was wont to be his almost inseparable companion. In this disguise was it that Barney had dared to come up to Lon- dun; and now for the first time he had penetrated idto the grounds of the villa where Queen Indora dwelt. Little suspected the oriental lady that she was in the close vicinage of one who harboured such evil designs towards her: little likewise did she imagine that the power of her beauty was at that instant exercising its influence over the soul of one fianiem of his nature was melting under the in- fluence of that supernal loveliness which he was now surveying. Indeed, the eastern lady appeared to him something more than woman: she looked as if she were a goddess: there was something about her which not merely charmed—it likewise overawed; and there was a moment when the miscreant alwost felt as if he conid rush forth from his ambush, throw himself at her feet, and implore her pardon ! . Indora passed away from the vicinage of the fountain; and as the Burker followed with his eee a ee ee ee = — an eyes her slowly retreating form, he thought to . himself that never had he befere been struck by the beauty which exists in a woman’s faaltless shape. These hitherto unknown feelings expanded - and strengthened within him; and it seemed as if © he had suddenly become altogether a difforent being from what he was. Indora disappeared in . a turning of the gravel-walk; and then the Burker asked himeolf, “ What the devil is all this that has come over me? I feel just like achild. I sup- pose it mast be because I havn't got my club as usual; and I’m like a lion without his teeth and © claws. And yet that lady ée uneommon besutiful! I never thought so much before of what a woman’s good looks might be.” Here Indora reappeared to the Burker’s view: he left off communing with himself—his gaze was once more riveted upon her. As she drew nearey, he beheld an expression of ineffable sadness pass over her countenance: she was thinking of her | late father, and the tears trickled down her cheeks. , She raised her kerchief te wipe them away; aud the Burker was struck by the exquisite modelling of her hand and of as mach of the arm as the | sleeve of the caftan suffered to be visible.. Then | she thonght of Clement Redcliffe; and a sweet emile played upon her lips, revealing a glimpse of the teeth of ivory whiteness. The Burker literally quivered at the strangeness of theee new feelings which had come over him; and agnin was he on the point of rushing forth and imploring the lady’s pardon for the design which he had enter- tained towards her. But he checked himeelf: for at the instant his ear caught other footsteps advancing along a neighbouring gravel-walk. It was Sagoonah, who sought her mistress; and now the Barker beheld that splendid Hindoo woman the dark granduer of whose beauty was of so high an order, and whose lithe form was of so of the greatest miscreants in all Christendom. | bayadere a symmetry. The Burker was astonished And yet such was the caso. The Burker—whoee : at the spectacle of this new personification of an- disposition was naturally of a brutal callousness, ' other style of feminine charms: and as the two and whe of all men in the world was the least | walked away together, he followed them with his susceptible of a sentiment that could interfere ' gaze. But asin his own mind he endeavoured to With any businees that he had on hand—was now ' establish a choice between them, it settled upon suddenly smitten with a feeling hitherto unknown. Indora. Yet was the rude, brutal heart of this It appeared to him as if he had never rightly | man who was stained with « thousand orimes, and GOnNGIOOKSHeOn