The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 219: what you’re looking at

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

WHO IS THE CULPRIT? 189 a few questions,” said the learned gentleman, rising from his seat and drawing his gown over his shoulders. ‘Do you wish me to enter the witness-box, sir?” de- manded Arthur, whose manner was marked by a peculiarity which failed not to strike every one present; for there was a restless glitter in his eyes accompanied by a nervous quiver- ing of the lips and an agitation of the entire being, which, coupled with the mysterious turn that the proceedings had appeared to take at the first examination, began to excite strange and startling suspicions in the minds of the spectators. ““ No, sir, I do not wish you to enter this box,’’ said Coun- sellor Sharply, with that significancy, or, rather, semisar- casm and covert irony in which barristers are so prone to indulge. ‘* You can remain where you are — at least for the present,” added the learned gentleman, with a deeper meaning, as he glanced encouragingly at Rose Foster. But it was almost with a feeling of alarm that the young girl caught this look and comprehended its purport; for, when considered in connection with the mysterious observa- tions in which the counsellor had been indulging, it appeared as if he meant to intimate the probability that Mr. Eaton would speedily change places with herself. And Rose was alarmed, because although she was deeply, deeply anxious that her own innocence should transpire, she was shocked at the thought that he whohad appeared asthe principal witness against her could possibly be himself the perpetrator of the crime. A film came over her eyes, a dizziness passed through her brain, and a sickness seized upon her heart, for her generous nature experienced the same boundless compassion for Arthur Eaton which he himself had all along felt for her; and moreover, her confidence in human nature was suddenly prostrated by the idea that a young man with so ingenuous a countenance, a brow whereon such noble thoughts seemed impressed, and eyes wherein all lofty emotions might be read, — her soul sank cowering down, we say, with alarm and anguish at the thought that the being created after the image of God was capable of such tremendous hypocrisy. But this sensation of physical and mental faintness was— as evanescent as it was profound; and all the young girl’s ideas fell back again into their proper channels and she was recalled completely to herself when Counsellor Sharply began to question the Honourable Arthur Eaton. (C(O) mG 6)(0)©)