The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 222: what you’re looking at

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

THE MYSTEBIES OF THE COURT. 211 assist her brother that she had been so suddenly sscd for money: because if so, the intervention of the man Shadbolt would have been unnecessary. That it was one debt, and not several, which she had paid the night before Jast, was to be argued from the fact of only one creditor, or one creditor's representative, having called to assert a pecuniary claim. Who, then,gould be this one creditor to whom she had contracted so immense a liability ? —for as a matter of course Sir Frederick felt con- vinced that Anastatia, and Anastatia only, had emptied the cash-box of its contents. For a moment the merchant thought of proceed- ing straight to his wife to question her on the sub- ject: but this idea he the next instant banished from his mind. He had told her tosay nothing more on the subject—be himself had avoided it: ho felt that there would be something mean, little, and paltry in re-opening that topic, inasmuch as the very prefa- tory words which in such a case he would have to utter must be to the effect that she had taken a much larger sum than he had anticipated or in- tended. Nevertheless, Sir Frederick was resolved to institute some investigation. His mind was troubled: suspicions, vague and indefinite, were rising up in his brain. He remembered his wife’s confusion when a week back he had sought her in the drawing-room immediately after her first in- terview with Shadbolt: he naturally considered that there was something strange in the manner in which this same Shadbolt had come to persecute her on the night that she was receiving company’ —strange also that she should have been eo much troubled when his visit was announced—and that with a sort of terror she should have granted him an interview instead of with becoming dignity bidding him call on a future day and a more suit- able occasion. And now, too, Sir Frederick be- thought himeelf of the way in which Anastatia had swept her letters and papers into her desk on that afternoon when he (Sir Frederick) had sought her in the drawing-room, as already alluded to. All these reflections troubled the great City mer- chant ; and in spite of himself he felt those suspi- cions which were agitating his mind, gathering strength and power, although of so vague and in- definite a character. From what the reader has seen of the mer- chant’s disposition, he may have comprehended that beneath a certain exterior show of cold pride and subdued ostentation, there was no small amount of real meanness and pettiness. These little feelings were now rising uppermost; and under their influence Sir Frederick found himself leaving ’the study and making his way up to that apartment where Anastatia’s writing-desk usually stood upon a emall table in a recess. On entering this apartment, Sir Frederick looked at the writing- deak with an expression of countenance as if he were saying to himself, “ That desk doubtless con- tains the means of elucidating this mystery !’ As he immediately afterwards slowly glanced around, he beheld a small bunch of keys lying upon another table. The temptation was irresistible : indeed the presence of those keys was precisely what the merchant was desiring at the instant. He took them up: the very first which he applied to the writing-desk was the one that fitted ; and now that merchant who was usually all business- like deliberation in his proceedings, was hasty, quick, and even nervous in what he was doing. He was afraid that his wife or a servant might enter and surprise him in the midst of an action which he felt to be mean and pitiful, although perbaps not altogether without justification under the cir- cumstances. He turned over the papers ; he took up a pink-tinted billet; and on reading the name of Madame Angelique, a dark expression came over his countenance. He perused its contents. It demanded five hundred and sixty-three pounds, “as per bill delivered ;” and it intimated that Mr, Isaac Shadbolt was empowered to receive tha amount. This individual’s two visits- to Tudor House were therefore no longer a mystery: but there were other circumstances which were very far from being satisfactory to Sir Frederick La- tham. “A year has elapsed,” he muttered to himeelf, “ since I expressly desired Anastatia to leave off dealing with that woman whose infamous character I accidentally discovered, and which I mentioned to my wife as my reason for the request that I made at the time. She must have disobeyed me —she mast have since been secretly dealing there |” Graver and darker, as well as more definite be- came the merchant’s suspicions ; and he hastened to look over the rest of the papers which he found in the desk. These were all Madame Angelique’s bills, duly receipted at dates shortly after they were sent in; and there was no bill of a date later than the period when, a year beck, Sir Frederick had so expressly desired his wife to discontinue her patronage of Madame Angelique’s millinery establishment. But amongst those papers was the receipt given by Mr. Shadbolt for the sum speci- fied in the pink-tinted billet. Sir Frederick’s suspicion flowed into the correct channel: he re- garded that billet as the vebicle of an extortion. Indeed hig wife’s conduct itself naturally appeared to be replete with causes for misgiving and dis- trust. ‘ Wherefore,” asked Sir Frederick of himself, “ should she have taken upwards of two thousand pounds to pay a bill of between five and six hun- dred P”” - There were no other documents in the desk which at all interested the merchant : he arranged the papers in the order in which he had found them—he closed the desk—he deposited the keys on the other table—and he issued from the apart- ment. His mind was already made up how to act: he ordered his horse—and dispensing with the attendance of a groom, rode forth alone. Brix- ton Hill was soon reached; and giving his horse to a loitering boy to hold, Sir Frederick Latham knocked at the door of Madame Angelique’s villa. The retired milliner was at home; and the mer- chant was conducted into her presence. Per- sonally he was a stranger to her; and as he gave no name to the pretty servant-girl who answered the door, Madame Angelique was unaware who the visitor was, as well as what his business might be. She saw that be was cold and reserved in his manner: but she, on the other hand, was all affa- bility and courtesy as she desired him to be seated. “Perhaps you will know my name, Madame Angelique,” began the merchant, “when I an- nounce it as Sir Frederick Latham.” # a « e¢ @. @e _ COMIC OOOlK<S conn