The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 380: what you’re looking at

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

346 THE COURT OF LONDON ‘sigh which came from her bosom, and which seemed to torture her with a suffocating effect. The impulse which now seized upon him was irresistible; and stepping forward, he took her hand, saying, in a low whisper, ‘“‘ Beauteous lady, wherefore are you unhappy? ” For an instant he felt her hand tremble even through the white kid glove which covered it. The next moment that hand was snatched back with a strange abruptness, and her looks appeared to flash through her mask, as she said, in a tone that was musically fluid though evidently feigned, “ Who are you? ”’ ‘‘T am Lord Florimel to the world, Gabriel to you, sweet lady, whoever you may be,” was the response delivered by Montgomery, in a key so soft and low that it was impossible it could either confirm or lull a suspicion as to whose voice it really was. ) ‘You are Lord Florimel? ”’ said the Flower Girl, her own voice now sounding so tremulously as to be scarcely audible, and the earl could perceive that her entire frame writhed as if with a sudden convulsion, but whether of frenzied joy or searching anguish he could not at the instant conjecture; for that abrupt vibration so much resembled the spasm of a bitter affliction, and yet what other feeling could influence her save a thrill of ecstasy? “Yes, I am Lord Florimel,”’ repeated Mectasnies: still rendering his voice utterly impossible to be recognized; ‘and you, dearest lady — ”’ “Traitor! perjurer!’’ murmured the unknown, in a dying voice, and she appeared suddenly to stagger as if about to fall. Montgomery, though struck with dismay at the tremen- dous epithets which had just been hurled at his head, stretched out his arms to save her; but this movement on his part seemed to recall her to herself in an instant, and, repelling his attentions with an evident mingling of hatred and scorn, she darted away, glided with the aerial lightness of a bayadere amidst the crowd, and was lost to his view. ‘Damnation! ’”? murmured Lord Montgomery to himself; “the adventure is spoiled, the trick is discovered, the game is lost. She perceived that I was not Lord Florimel; and as it was Lord Florimel, and Lord Florimel only, whom she was resolved to have, no substitute would answer her purpose. comicbooks.