The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 209: what you’re looking at

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

THE MYSTERIES OF THE PAST 187 intentions nor made the slightest allusion to her intended change of name and removal to some other part of the country. Therefore, when all those arrangements were carried out, and Lydia with the pseudonym of Miss Stanley took up her abode at the retired cottage near Canterbury, in company with her two orphan nieces, Mrs. Owen alto- gether lost sight of her. We should observe that to account for the girls bearing her own name, that of Stanley, their aunt represented her- self, not as their deceased mother’s, but as their father’s sister. We may likewise remark that by dint of the utmost frugality she was enabled to give them as good an education as the best day-school for young ladies in Canterbury could afford; and as she herself was well versed in all branches of polite education and in many accomplishments, the instructions she was enabled to impart were immensely beneficial to her nieces. Nevertheless, as they grew up, Miss Stanley could not help occasionally noticing, with an in- ward misgiving and even presentiment, that Clara’s dis- position was not altogether so radically good as that of Louisa, but that the former was naturally of indolent habits, somewhat selfish and egotistical, with a tinge of duplicity; whereas Louisa’s character was a compound of all the amen- ities, excellences, and amiabilities that can possibly combine to consolidate the principles of virtue and form a safeguard for woman’s innocence and purity. (C(O) nn) (C 0)(0)(©) KS { i in