The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 150: what you’re looking at

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

Se energy ~~ Wenner THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. 135 were as difficult as they were urgent. Indeed, it | treasured up in the sanctity of that chaste taber- was one of those positions in which a very decisive | nacle;,and thus was it that Lady Florina had no and almost desperate step could alone be taken. | confidante in the general acceptance of the term. And such a step did Lady Florina make up her| The consequence was that she now felt herself mind to adopt. involved in a perplexing and embarrassing position. Composing her feelings as well as she was able, | She was anxious to go out for a couple “of hours ; the young lady descended again to the drawing- | and she did not choose the household to be aware room. Her object was to learn in the course of. of the circumstance. How was she to manage? conversation what were her aunt’s plans for the Though in the purity of her heart hating and evening. This was soon ascertained: Lady Mac- , scorning anything that bordered upon daplicity, she donald was engaged to a whist-party at an oft now found herself reduced to the necessity of _— dowager’s in the same Square; and Florina there- | scheming somewhat in order to accomplish her pur- fore perceived with inward satisfaction that the evening would be entirely at her own disposal—for Lady Macdonald was by no means likely to re- quire her to accompany her to an “old people’s' party.” Hours passed away—hours full of poignant sus- pense and a torturing anxiety for the poor young lady. Never had an afternoon appeared so long: neve’ had the foot of time seemed to be so heavy. | Talk of time having wings and flying fleetly! he had | none then for Florina. By one only incident was - the monotony of that afternoon relieved; and this was an incident that enhanced to a harrowing de- | |plainest and simplest apparel—an unpretending gree the young lady’s affliction. It was when Deveril’s well-known knock sounded at the front | door, and Florina almost immediately afterwards pose. After a little deliberation, the young lady decided how to act. She waited till her aunt had taken her departure-to the house where she was to spond the evening; and then Florina rang the bell of her own private chamber. Her principal iady’s- maid, whose name was Sophia, immediately an- swered the summons; and Florina said, “I feel so unwell this evening that I mean to lie down for an hour or two. Do not let me be disturbed until I ring for you.” Sophia, suspecting nothing, promised to obey her young mistress’s orders, and withdrew. It was now close upon nine o’clock; and Florina, putting on her straw-bonnet with a veil, and a dark shawl—glided down a back staircase and succeeded in issuing un- heard that door closed with an unusual degree of, perccived from the house, there being a means of violence. mated——if an outrage it rare? Good heaven ! the outrage was consum- 1 egress from the rear of the premises. Because if Deveril were really unfaithful and inconstant, and , if Lady Saxondale’s story were strictly true, then | We should add that she had locked the door of her own suite of apartments and had taken the key with her. On foot did the young lady proceed to the Regent’s was if no unmcerited outrage, but a well deserved Park, whieh, for the behoof of persons unacquainted punishment. The dinner-hour arrived; and Lady Macdonald, who was one of those persons that dwelt long upon a particular topic and reverted often to it, talked the whole time about “the over-weening insolence and laughable coxcombry of that upstart Devsril.” And, poor Florina was compelled to sit aad listen—and not merely to listen, but also tu veil the feelings which this constant harping on the same sensitive chord tried so cruelly. Yes—she had to conceal her emotions from her aunt, and from the domestics in attendance: but as she caught herself blushing and turning pale a dozen times in a minute, she trem- bled to the lowest cvnfines of her being at the fear of being detected. That dinner was one of the crucllest ordeals through whict she had ever passed; and never was relief more gratefully welcomed than when Lady Macdonald retired to dress for the whist-party, and Florina thus found an opportunity of seeking the solitude of hex own chamber. Unlike the Hon. Miss Ferefields, Lady Florina Staunton had no confidsutial lady’s-maid. She had two lady’s-maids: but with neither of them was she accustomed to converse in a manner cal- culated to lessen her own dignity in their eyes, or diminish the respect which they experienced to- wards her. For, considering the sphere to which she belonged, Lady Florina was assuredly one of the most artless, unsophisticated, and ingenuous creatures in existence. Therefore, while she in- variably treated her dependants with the utmost affability and kindness, never even making them feel their menial condition, she at the same time avoided anything that savoured of undue familiarity. Whatsoever secrets her heart might cherish; were with London, we may observe is at no very great distance fram Cavendish Square. As she went on her way, Florina was several times on the point of turning back. Shue felt that in one sense there was some impropriety in the step | She was taking—that of a single young lady visiting a single young gentleman, and such a visit being paid at such an hour: but thea she thoucht tu her- self that after everything that had occurred on the previous day between hersel%and Deveril, it was a duty she owed to her own teelings as well as to those of that individual to suffer no unnecessary delay to elapse ere she had an explanation with him. . If all the worst should be confirmed, he surely would not agzravate the present evil of his conduct towards her by boasting elsewhere that he had received such a visit: and if he were enabled to defend himself completely against the allegations of Lady Saxondale, he would rejoice and be grateful for the step Florina was now taking. Thus the young lady found more arguments to induce her to continue her way than to make her retrace her steps. She entered the Regent’s Park, and in a short time drew near the mansion where she had passed the previous evening. She stood for a few moments gazing up at the balcony whence she had waved her handkerchief to Deveril: and as her heart swelled almost to bursting and the tears started from her eyes, she said to herself, ‘‘Is it possible that within a few hours after making a declaration of love te Lady Saxondale, he could have been guilty of such a hollow hypocrisy as to seek this spot in the hope of being enabled to catch a glimpse of me? Oh! there is a strange, an unnatural contradiction in al] a ee COMIC OOO S (CO)