The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 246: what you’re looking at

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

THE MYSTERIES transpired. Immediately it broke up Lord Octa- vian resumed his journey in another equipage, he having received a joan from the Mayor to meet his immediate pecuniary requirements. It was a little past ten o’clock in the morning when the young English nobleman thus pursued his journey,—now unattended, and having to de- plore the loss of a valet who had served him faith- fully. The forest was traversed—the fetal spot where the hideous tragedy had taken place, was passed; and when once the maze of countless trees was left behind, the road lay through an open coun- try over which the eye could range toa considerable distance on either side. Upwards of thirty miles were so accomplished ; and it was between one and two o'clock in the afternoon when the post-chaise entered a town where Octavian purposed to tarry a brief space that he might procure the refresh- ment of which he stood éo much in need; for he had not as yet broken his fast. 1 The equipage drove up to the door of the prin- cipal hotel in the place; and on alighting, Lord Octavian observed two handsome travelling car- rieges which had evidently only arrived a few minutes previous, as the post-horses which were now to be changed, had not as yet moved away from the vicinage of the hotel. <A couple of do- mestics in handsome liveries were conversing with a third menial in plain clothes, and who was evidently a valet in the same service as the foot- men themselves. Octavian therefore concluded that some family of distinction had halted at this same hotel where his own equipage had stopped : but his mind was too much engrossed with a variety of subjects to have scope for any curiosity on that particular point. Inquiring for a private room, his demand was attended to by a waiter of the establishment,—who requested him to ascend to the first floor. Octavian followed the domestic up the staircase; and at the moment they reached the landing, the door of an apartment suddenly opened and a lady came forth. Ejaculations burst from the lips of this lady, as well as from those of Octa- Vian : for it was the wife who was thus unexpectedly met by the husband at that place. Zoe's first impulses was to spring forward and throw herself into Octavian’s arms: bat all ina moment a sickening sensation came over her as she remembered that he loved another! She staggered against the door-post, and would have fallen, were it not that Lord Octavian himself rushed towards her and caught her in his arms. ‘‘ Zve—my dearest wife!” he murmured, as he strained her to his breast. “I was coming to seck you—I was on my way to join you, to do my duty by you henceforth! But by what lucky chance is it that I meet you here?” * Octavian, is it possible,” said Zoe, in accents tremulous with mingled joy and wonderment, “that I have heard aright—or do my ears deceive me ?” | “It is true, Zoe,” responded Meredith: “ but, Oh! I have eo much to tell you |’’—then suddenly recollecting that the hotel-servant was a spectator of this scene, he turned to him, saying, “ Conduct us to the private room that I have asked for.” The waiter at once obeyed: Zoe and Octavian were now alone together. “Can you forgive me, Zoe?’ asked her husband, seating himself by her side, taking her hand, and OF THE COURT. 235 gazing upon her with looks of earnest entreatys “is it possible that you can forgive me—that you can receive me again as I wish to be received P— for Iam aware, Zoe, that you know everything ——Alas, I have long been convinced of it!” ~ For some minutes the amiable young lady was so overpowered by her feelings that she could give no responses the tears trickled down her cheeks— but through them she gazed with the most earnest and devoted affection upon her husband. Again and again did he press her to his heart: but his own voice was now stifled by the emotions which agitated within him. “* Zoe,” he at length said, sinking at her feet, “on my knees do I finplore your pdrdon for the past! I have indulged in a dream—TI was ite victim—it was a delusion-——yet while it lasted it had the power to render me faithless in thought and in feeling unto yourself. Oh! bitterly, bit- terly do I repent everything that has occurred! I have been very, very wicked—I have requited all your love in a manner which I blush to look back upon! But forgive me, Zoe—forgive me !—and henceforth shall it be my constant and unwearied study to make every atonement!’’ “Octavian,” answered Zoe, in a voice which flowed as softly as the tears themselves that were trickling from her eyes, “I never had expected to bear such language as this from your lips! And, Oh! if it be sincerely spoken—if it ‘do indeed faithfully represent any change which may hare taken place in your own heart, you are at this moment rendering me the happiest of women !” | “As God is my judge,” exclaimed Meredith, starting up from his knees, “I am proclaiming | from the lips all that is truly felt in the heart!” - Again they embraced; and words have no power to describe the joy, the paradise of feeling which Zoe now experienced. Indeed, it was a happiness almost too much for her to endure; and this sudden change in her circumstances was naturally accompanied by a proportionate revul- aion in all the feelings of the heart itself. With- out ag yet being acquainted with a single par- ticular of the incidents which had brought this change about and recalled her husband to her arms, she accepted the assurances which Octavian had given her: she felt convinced they were sin- cere—his presence there was a proof of it—and she consequently abandoned herself to the full tide of that sunlit stream of joy on which her soul was now floating. A dizziness came over her, and she felt as if she were about to faint—as if indeed she must swoon off in the very ecstasy of happiness itself: but she exerted all her powers to save her- self as it were from unconsciousness—and she suc- ceeded. ~ “Oh, my beloved Octavian!” she murmured, as her head reposed upon his shoulder—and though her voice was low, yet was there a thrill of exulta- tion in its tone, “ what bliss has this day brought forth for me! And yesterday too——lI ought to have looked upon it as the harbinger of some most happy change that was to take placo——” “Yesterday, my beloved Zoe?” said Octavian: “what mean you P” “Until yesterday,” rejoined the now happy wife, “ methought that there were within me the seeds of an incurable disease: methought that consumption had fastened upon my vitals, i@ COMIC OOOlK<S conn