The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 184: what you’re looking at

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

162 THE COURT OF LONDON during your long illness, harboured a thought, done a deed, or taken a single step which I should be ashamed for you to know. And now at once, before we speak of aught else, let me confess that I quitted you on one occasion, but not without the deep conviction and assurance that in Mary Owen [I left an excellent substitute and kind guardian.” ‘‘ But whither did you go, my dear Louisa? ”’ asked Miss Stanley, surprised, though neither alarmed nor angered, at the confession which her niece was now making. ‘“T went to Paris,’’ replied the maiden. ‘ Indeed, I was inveigled thither in a most ungenerous and unhandsome manner by a nobleman named the Marquis of Leveson; and for a time I was rendered very wretched indeed by an attempt which he made to induce me to believe that Jocelyn Loftus was not only unfaithful to me, but also a very bad man. Ah, my dear aunt, I was very, very unhappy then. The marquis brought me back to England, and I was in- duced to accompany him to London. There he threw off the mask and endeavoured to treat me vilely, aided also by his niece, a lady so very beautiful and seeming so good that I was at first completely prepossessed in her favour. Oh, I shudder when I think how nearly I was destroyed and undone by the Marquis of Leveson and Lady Ernestina Dysart. But Heaven sent a kind friend to my deliverance, and this was done through Clara’s instrumentality. Then I saw Clara, and came straight home again to the cottage. Clara convinced me that my suspicions relative to Jocelyn Loftus had been most unfounded. In due course he him- self returned from Paris, where he had been kept in prison through the most wicked devices; and he then satisfied me, even if I were not previously convinced, how cruelly he had been wronged by those suspicions. A letter came from the Princess Sophia, requesting him to go to London. He did so, and when he returned he was compelled to set off again for the Continent. This was six or seven months ago, and there he has been ever since. But, as I told you last night, he will be home in a day or two, having fully succeeded in unmasking the conspiracy which had been devised against the Princess of Wales. And now, my dear aunt, I have given you a rapid but faithful outline of all that concerns myself.”’ ‘You have indeed passed through many and serious Conmniclooolks (CO)