The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 350: what you’re looking at

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

316 THE COURT OF LONDON by that powerful arm which I had no doubt belonged to the tall lackey who had previously served me in the same manner, I fell into a deep but delicious reverie, in which I feasted my imagination with all the delights that I had just been enjoying in such blessed reality. At length I bethought myself that I was blindfolded; and starting from my profound meditations, I took off the handkerchief. The interior of the vehicle was of pitchy darkness, and I therefore knew that the wooden blinds must be drawn up. I endeavoured to open the one nearest to me, but it was fastened in its setting. I tried the one belonging to the other door, and my attempt was equally ineffectual. I felt in front of the carriage, but it was a barouche and had no windows there at all. Thus, my dear friend, do you perceive how completely baffled I should have been had I obeyed any sudden impulse of the kind which you imagined to have seized upon me the moment I entered the vehicle. You likewise see how complete, how effectual, and yet how simple were the precautions adopted by that lady to screen herself from the knowledge of the man whom her fantasy had made the partner of her bed for four short hours.” ‘‘The whole narrative is a perfect romance,” exclaimed Montgomery, — ‘‘ I mean, in the intensity of its interest.” ‘Yes, and that interest is the more absorbing,” said Florimel, “‘ because the romance itself is one of real life. But I was going to bring my tale to a conclusion, and this can now be done in a few words. For in about twenty minutes from the time that I reéntered the carriage in the manner I have described, it stopped, and the door was opened by a tall man. But he was dressed in plain clothes, and the broad brim of his hat completely shaded his counte- nance; so that, in fact, he was not recognizable in the dim twilight of the misty winter morning. A sudden impulse prompted me to retain possession of the handkerchief which had blindfolded my eyes and which might serve as a clue; but scarcely was the idea formed than it was discarded as mean, paltry, and contemptible to a degree. Moreover, I experienced an instinctive feeling that by leaving it behind me in the vehicle, it would be regarded with all the signif- icancy of a guarantee to the lady that I did not seek any unfair means of penetrating into that secret around which she had thrown the defences of so many precautions. These (Gl@) ANC 6)(0)() S (C@ mM