The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 164: what you’re looking at

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THE MYSTERIES. 149 foe—my mortal enemy—and the air of this world will be less oppressive to me when you shall have ceased to breathe it. And now depart—leave me, Arthur Eaton—I command you!” But she spoke to one who heard her not: the young man had fainted in his chair. Fernanda thought that he was dead; and, terror seizing upon her, she rang the bell violently. Mrs. Lindley, who happened to be ina neighbour- ing room attending upon the lodger that was unwell, hurried to Miss Aylmer’s chamber, where a glance showed her for what purpose she had been summoned. Her experienced eye, however, told her in an instant that it was but a swoon into which the Hon. Arthur Katon had fallen; and to Fernanda’s rapid questions she accordingly gave reassuring answers. Hastily loosening his neckcloth and opening his waistcoat to give him air, the old woman sprinkled water upon his countenance: but he revived not. “In his weak and enfeebled sta‘e, this may end in death !” she murmured in a low but impressive whisper to Miss Aylmer. “‘ No—no—he must not die yet!” exclaimed Fer- nanda vehemently: “ my vengeance is not half com- plete !” ro “Then naught except a few drops of the antidote will save him,” returned the midwife: “and as his valet will renew the poison to-morrow——~” “Good! I comprehend you: be it so!” ejaculated Fernanda. “ He must not die while I am imprisoned here and unable to mark the progress of his rapid decline. Administer the antidote.” The vehemence with which Fernanda had spoken, and which Mrs. Lindley in vain endeavoured to check by placing her finger on her lips, had aroused Mr. Eaton somewhat: but the spiritual sense re- turned sooner than the physical power—and at the instant he awoke to consciousness, the word “an- tidote” fell upon his ear. The effect was stupifying—and he once more be- came motionless as a statue. Both the midwife and Fernanda, who had observed the slight convulsive movement which indicated reviving energy, imagined that he had undergone a complete relapse ;—and again did the patrician lady urge the old woman to administer the antidote. Eaton was at this moment in the full enjoyment of his reasoning faculties, though still physically powerless and inert ;—and that word, falling again on his ears, convinced him that it was not a delusion when he fancied that he had heard Fernanda give utterance to if a minute before. Mrs. Lindley hurried from the room ;—and the dreadful though still vague suspicion which had flashed to the young man’s mind nerved him with the courage and armed him with the resolution to re- main perfectly still and tranquil, even now when his limbs were so far recovering their powers that he could have moved them if-he had chosen. In fact, he was no longer ina swoon: but he affected to be. “ Where an antidote is administered, there poison must have previously been. In this case the anti- dote can do no harm: besides, it is about to be given in order to restore me.”’ Such were the ideas that flashed through his brain, during the few moments that Mrs. Lindley’s ab- sence lasted. When she returned, she carefully closed the door behind her, and approached the arm- open and his eyes closed. In another moment he felt chair in whieh Eaton lay back with his mouth half a small bottle applied to his lips—and a tasteless fluid trickled down his throat. Having thus administered the antidote, Mrs. Lindley re-corked the bottle, and secured it about her person. Eaton now affected slowly to revive; and so well did he perform his part, that not even the experi- enced eyes of the old midwife could detect his dupli- city. She handed him a glass of water, which he drank; and ina few moments his recovery seemed complete. Rising from the chair, he turned one long re- proachful look upon Fernanda, who met that gaze with one of mingled menace and defiance ;—and he then quitted the room. On rejoining the Countess of Desborough in the parlour down stairs, he communicated to her in afew rapid words the total failure of his interview with Miss Aylmer: but he said nothing of the swoon into which he had fallen, nor the terrible language which had produced it. The Countess would have visited Fernanda’s cham- ber again in order to try the effect of renewed prayers, arguments, and remonstrances: but Eaton assured her that her kind interference would not only prove vain and useless, at least on the present occasion, but might injuriously add to the excitement into which the scenes of the evening had thrown the young lady. Eleanor accordingly renounced the idea ; and Arthur escorted her to the hackney-coach which was waiting at a little distance, CHAPTER XLIII, TITE BANE AND ANTIDOTE. WuHeEn the Hon. Mr. Eaton regained his father’s town-mansion, which was situate in Hanover Square, he hastened to his own chamber—threw himself upon a sofa—and gave way to his reflections. These were of a varied and conflicting nature: for there were several features in the adventures of the evening which appeared to be fraught witha strange, deep, and mysterious interest. Wherefore should an antidote have been ad- ministered to him ?—could poison possibly be cir- culating in his veins ?—and if so, how was the fact known to Mrs. Lindley and Fernanda, unless they themselves were the poisoners? Had he providen- tially discovered a clue to that wasting malady which baffled the skill of so many eminent physi- cians ?—if so, then the antidote was in his posses- sion and he could counteract the effect of the venom which was sapping the very principles of his existence. That Fernanda was fully capable of wreaking the most deadly vengeance upon him, her language of this night had afforded incontestible proof ;— and that she was the authoress of his malady, if it could be attributed to human agency at all, certain words which she had uttered amply showed. Her diabolical will was manifested—her vindictive in- tent had been avowed—and therefore might she not be already prosecuting her scheme of revenge through the medium of some wretch whom heavy bribes had won over to her interests? If all these conjectures were accurate, then who couldthis wretch be? Mr. Eaton’s suspicions na- turally fell upon the man most constantly about SR a AN SE eS Clooolks.conn COLUM