The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 182: what you’re looking at

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

156 THE COURT OF LONDON ‘“‘ Assertion! ’’ echoed Miss Walters, bitterly. ‘‘ What! when the plaintive shriek of that murdered babe — your babe, lady — still rings in my ears, ay, and vibrates unceasingly in my brain! Oh, my God, it appeared to me then, it appears to me now, as if I were an accomplice in the tremendous tragedy of that foul night. Because I heard the faint scream of the innocent as it fell from the casement into the swollen river; because I knew that it was the child of the patrician young lady who tenanted the next room to mine; because I had no doubt that Mrs. Lindley herself was the murderess, and because I subsequently gleaned from your lips enough to convince me that you were in the full possession of con- sciousness when you gave birth to that child, and therefore that you were cognizant of the doom to which the accursed old harridan devoted it, —it was on account of all these circumstances, I say, that I felt as if I myself became an accessory and a co-partner in the appalling crime, inasmuch as I held my peace and gave no warning to justice of its per- petration.”’ | ‘Fernanda, Fernanda,’ whispered Lord Holderness, in a hollow voice, as he drew his wife forcibly aside for a moment}. ‘‘ what are we to do with this young woman? What does she require? Let us get rid of her, for Heaven’s sake! ”’ ‘Yes, yes,’ responded Lady Holderness, speaking hur- riedly and apart to her husband; “‘ but we must not appear. to be afraid of her.’ Then, turning toward the disguised female, she said in a more conciliatory tone than any she had yet adopted, ‘‘ Caroline, you are heaping together a number of accusations, inferences, and suppositions, in order to vent your spite upon me, simply because I did not receive you with open arms the instant that you accosted me ere now. But let us abandon that style.of discourse. Accusation can be met by recrimination; and, even if all we may bring for- ward on either side be strictly true no beneficial result will arise to either of us. For you dare not proclaim to the world anything you know or fancy you know concerning me; and for my part, I have not the least inclination to call in a con- stable, and tell him that Caroline Walters isin my house, dis- guised in a naval uniform and an exquisite pair of whiskers.” ‘Ah! you adopt a bantering tone with me!” Caroline, her. wrath being piqued anew by the slight yet perceptible accent of irony which marked the concluding CONNIE ACC) exclaimed m “S