The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 310: what you’re looking at

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

280 THE COURT OF LONDON On the other hand, an expression of penitence and reviving affection appeared upon the countenance of the dying girl as Florimel, with an air of contrition and grief, approached the bed whereon she lay; and he perceived at once that it was not to upbraid him with her last breath that Caroline had sent to beseech his presence there. The chaplain who intro- duced the young nobleman to the chamber, and the nurse who was in attendance upon Caroline, now withdrew, and Lord Florimel remained alone with the dying girl. He glanced uneasily around the room, which a single candle lighted. It was naked, dull, and cheerless i in aspect, and a cold shudder passed over his form at the idea of any one’s last moments being expended there. Then, having thus slowly made the circuit of the chamber with its dingy walls and scanty furniture, his looks settled upon the counte- nance of Caroline Walters, and he saw that her gaze was fixed earnestly and intently upon him. In that gaze there was a professed mournfulness mingled with a certain tender- ness which appeared to deprecate all angry feeling; and, stretching out her hand toward the young nobleman, she said in a faint, low voice, ‘‘ Sit down by my side, I have much to say to you ere I die.” The plaintiveness of the tone in which these words were uttered and the pathos of the words themselves went to the very soul of Lord Florimel. Bursting into tears, he took the proffered hand, and sank down on his knees by the bedside, exclaiming, “‘ Forgive me, Caroline, forgive me for the cruel wrongs which I have inflicted upon you.” ‘This is the time for mutual forgiveness, Gabriel,” she murmured in her silver voice, that was low and tremulous with emotions profoundly stirred and with the attenuating effect of coming dissolution. ‘‘ Until within the last few hours I have hated you as cordially as I once loved you; but the approach of death, the counsels and the consolations of the kind-hearted chaplain, and the whisperings of some secret, unknown voice which appears to have arisen in my soul since the moment that I found myself standing upon the threshold of the grave, —all these influences have worked a mighty change within me, and I feel that I shall die more resignedly and more happily if we express and record a mutual pardon for the past.” ‘Heaven knows how cheerfully, how willingly, how Gomichboo cS m