The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 106: what you’re looking at

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

88 THE COURT OF LONDON walks, its parterres of flowers, and its lawn in front of the picturesque cottage. Ay, and she thought also of the fond, doting mother whom she had so cruelly abandoned, that widowed mother whose joy and darling and treasure she had been. Back, back, then, to that scene of her childhood, that once cherished spot, that home in a far-off county. But would it be a home to her again, would the door open to re- ceive her, would the widowed mother’s arms be unfolded to welcome her? Yes, yes; she at least had that hope. It was a splendid carriage which had borne her away from the cottage to the metropolis: it was the stage-coach now which took the fugitive back again. Pillowed on the breast of an adoring lover had she travelled away from that cottage: alone inside the cheerless public vehicle did she retrace her way thither. ‘Tt was night when she was set down in the road, at the nearest point to the house. She had to walk a mile to reach it. The night was dark; it was the winter season, and the wind sighed amid the skeleton branches of the trees like the voices of the dead. Those sounds seemed full of weird portents to her, and she could hear her heart beat forcibly. Still went she on, and at length the cottage was reached. A light, a solitary light, was shining from a window; it was her mother’s chamber. Oh, if she were ill? Heavens! the thought was intolerable, and the unhappy young creature leaned against the garden fence for support. At length she opened the gate and went in. Ah! it was no longer in inno- cence that she trod that ground where the steps of her child- hood had played so glancingly along the gravel walks and amidst the parterres of flowers. It was in guilt, in shame, and in degradation that with feet as heavy as lead she dragged herself to the front door. She knocked, it was opened, and the old servant, who had been for years in the place, uttered an ejaculation so wild and strange that it struck dismay for an instant to the guilty young creature’s heart. But the next moment, unable to bear the agonies of suspense, she flew up-stairs, rushed into her mother’s cham- | ber, and then stood suddenly transfixed in direst horror at the spectacle which met her view. Dim and sickly was the light which burned in the room, and an old woman was creeping about the bed, performing the last offices of a sick- nurse. But on that bed, O God! was stretched the lifeless GOMIIGDOOKSHEO