The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 73: what you’re looking at

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

62 THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. had not experienced a sentiment of pride at the and so opposite—one infusing sorrow and the thought of calling this inimitable being his wife. | other joy into her heart. Sagoonah had listened And he did harbour that feeling—not because she; at the door until this leavo-taking reachod her was a princess of the loftiest rank: he forgot at: ears; and then she glided down into the hall to be the instant her royal descont—he beheld in her | in readiness to open the front door for Mr. Red- only a magnificent, an interesting, a noble-minded, | cliffe. He deacended the stairs—he traversed the and a loving woman. hail opened the door; and as he turned “Indora,” he said, “ never, never ean I forget | to bid her good night, he was struck by the ex- the words you have just spoken !—they provo all | pression of her largo brilliant eyes. They seemed the generosity of your heart. But listen to me | to vibrate upon him with a light that made him onco again. You know all——yes, I am aware | for a moment tremble—with a lustre that was so that you mest know all; and therefore you are not | sinister and so supernal, it smote him as it were ignorant of the horrible mystery——"__® with an unknown terror. The recollection flashed “Oh, Clement! there is justice in heaven,” ex- | to his mind that this was not the first time he had claimed Indora; “and that mystery will be cleared | seen those eyes thus flame and burn as they were up! Bat even if i¢ were nof, think you that | fixed upon him: he stopped short, and was about I——This is however a topic,” she ejaculated, | to ask Sagoonah wherefore she thus regarded him, “on which we must speak presently !” —when all of a sudden those eyes of her’s were “Be it so,” answered Redcliffe. “And now, | cast down—her demeanour became profoundly re- Indora, if ail these things be well weighed in your | spectful—and Redcliffe suffered the question to raind, and if you be firmly convinced that your | remain unasked. life’s happiness can be ensured by linking your; He bade the ayah good night—and issued from fate with mine, the affirmative response shall go/| the dwelling: but as he traversed the garden, and forth from my lip.” thence continued his way along tho lano leading *“* Clement; I am thine!” answered Indora: and | towards the main road, he felt as if he were still her head sank upon his breast. He clasped her in his arms: she wept with a varioty of conflicting feelings: for joy and sorrow followed by Sagoonah’s haunting eyes. were now strangely blended in her heart. Her CHAPTER XCV. love was to be crowned with happiness—but she had lost a father ! THE CONSEEVATORY. “Qh, Olement!” she murmured, “ know not what I foel—you cannot comprehend it! The THE dusk was setting in on the evening of the hope of long, long years is about’ to be fulfilled; | following day, when two individuals who had been and I have it in my power to testify unto you all | walking and holding s long discourse together iu the immensity of the love which I experience. I! the neighbourhood of Oaklands, shook hands and know that you seek not for titles—that you care | separated. One was Purvis, the old steward, who not for earthly honours: but you will at least feel | now retraced his way towards Marchmont’s ducal a pleasure in being placed in a position which will , seat: the other was Clement Redcliffe, who hastily enable you to do good to your fellow-creatures. | struck across the fields in the direction of a cottage Clement,” she added, in a voice that rose with a | Where he had been wont to tako up his quarters on sort of exultation, “it is not a Princess who offers | the three or four occasions that he had visited this you her hand: it is a Queen who can seat you by | part of the country. her side upon a throne, and who will rejoice to see | In a few minutes he reached the road, along her subjects governed by the wisdom and the phi- | which he had to continue his way for about a fanthropy of such a man!” quarter of a mile, in order to arrive at that cot- ‘‘Indora, what mean you?” asked Redcliffe in | tage: but he was destined to experience an ad- astonishment. “Your father——~” venture cre that walk, brief though it were, was “He is no mdre,” replied the eastern lady. | accomplished. For as he was Proceeding along, it “This very evening, high dignitaries from my own | struck him that he observed a female form lying kingdom have sought me here to communicate the | by the side of the road in the shade of the hedge. intolligence. And, Oh! if you found me not | He approached the object, and found that his sar- weoping and displaying all the evidences of grief mise was correct. A female lay motionless there, on account of my father’s death, it was because with her face’ downward ; and Redcliffe was instan- until this moment I subdued all I felt—I veiled it | taneously smitten with the idea that it was a to the utmost of my power—I would not seem sad | Corpse which he looked upon. He hastened to when you came to tell me that you would accept | raise her up; and eo far as the obscurity of the me as your bride.” evening would permit, he saw that she was de- Mr. Redcliffe sympathized with Indora on the | cently clad, that she was a woman of tall stature, loss of her father; and they now went on to con- | and that she possessed the remains if not of actual verse on those topics to which they had hitherto | beauty, at least of a countenance that had not only alluded distantly, and which they had agreed | been ill-looking. The woman was comparatively to postpone until other matters were settled. But | young too—not many years beyond thirty: but we need not penetrate further into the discourse | she had a haggard careworn aspect. Her eyes which thus passed between them: suffice it to say | Were closed: the warmth of life was however in that it was long and solemnly interesting to both. her; and Redcliffe was thus relieved from the idea It was a little past ten o'clock when Clement | that he was gazing upon the victim of a foul Redcliffe took his leave of Indora, and issued from | Crime, or of starvation, exhaustion, or of sudden the apartment,—leaving her to reflect apon the | aatural death. two main incidents of the evening, 00 conflicting The cottage, as we havo caid, was at no great ECOMmiclooolkks co