The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 105: what you’re looking at

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

’ THE DOOMED WOMAN 87 gances, and the profusions which the most refined luxury or the stateliest pomp could possibly require. “ But she does not love him in return. She never loved him. For her fall from innocence there is not even the apology of the heart’s affection. She was dazzled only by his lofty rank, his boundless wealth, and the golden promises he made her. Thoughtless and giddy, notwithstanding the admirable training which she had received under a fond mother’s care, she preferred to be a proud peer’s mistress rather than a poor man’s bride. She was dwelling in the country when he spoke to her of the grandeur of the metropo- lis; the simple enjoyments of a rural life seemed monotonous to her in comparison with the glowing pleasures associated with the mere name of London. Dazzled and intoxicated by all that was told her and all that she dreamed, excited and enchanted by the words that he spoke and the pictures her imagination drew, she had fallen. Yes, she had fied from her once happy home, and behold her now, the great lord’s mistress. But she loved him not. ““ Soon, however, she encountered a young man for whom she conceived a passion, and she intrigued with him. One day her noble admirer discovered her infidelity. Immense as his love had been, proportionately implacable was his vengeance now. He dispossessed her of everything he had bestowed upon her. In his rage he tore the jewels from her person, and trampled them under his foot; he then turned her forth from the splendid mansion where he had lodged her, and all in a moment she found herself stripped of every symbol of wealth, flung down from the pinnacle of prosperity, and in the street, homeless and friendless, with but a few guineas in her pocket. Well-nigh broken-hearted, she ha- stened to the young man whom she loved, and who had been, as it were, the cause of her downfall. But that very morn- ing he had led a bride to the altar, and was away into the country to spend the honeymoon. “ What was the young creature to do now? She was not so thoroughly depraved as to be inaccessible to some of those tender whisperings which the voice of youthful memories breathes upward from the soul in moments such as that. Thoughts of a once happy home came vividly back to her recollection, and to her mind’s eye arose the sweet picture of rural simplicity, the garden with its verdure, its gravel Coin DOO < C©