The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 47: what you’re looking at

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

THE BILLS OF EXCHANGE 31 solicitous to veil his irregularities from her knowledge, he did not wish to appear ridiculous in her eyes as having met with so mortifying a rebuff from her maid, nor was he de- sirous that such a circumstance should reach her ears at the very time he was seeking for proofs of her own suspected infidelity. One weight was therefore lifted from the earl’s mind; and now, becoming capable of calmer reasoning than for the last two or three hours, he saw the impossibility of as yet making any positive charge against his wife, or of even alluding to Lady Lechmere’s ambiguous note without admitting that he had searched the writing-desk in Editha’s absence. Moreover, he had now hopes of winning Gertrude to his interests; and as she was evidently in the confidence of her mistress, it was important to glean from her lips those secrets of which she had a knowledge. Such were the reflections which swept, all in a moment, through the mind of the earl, as he lingered upon the stairs after Gertrude had flitted away so abruptly; and no longer yearning to precipitate matters with Editha, he once more retraced his steps to the parlour. Ringing the bell, he ordered the servant who answered the summons to inquire whether Editha was coming down _ to supper; and the response was to the effect that the count- ess had supped at Lady Lechmere’s, but would join his lordship in a few minutes. The nobleman therefore sat down to the repast, and his wife presently made her appearance, laughing and in the best possible humour. ‘My dear Charles,” she said, tapping him playfully upon the cheek as she passed behind him to take a chair, “ you must have thought it very strange, very rude, and very un- kind in me to hasten away so abruptly when you.spoke to me in the hall as I came from the carriage; but I was labouring under a cruel misconception at the time. In fact, I heard it whispered at Lady Lechmere’s, about nine o’clock, that you had just been seen at the Haymarket Theatre in company with a female of notorious profligacy. You may therefore conceive how annoyed I was. But I have just learned that you have been at home all the evening and therefore the accusation must have arisen in sheer wickedness or down- right error.” (COMMUCG 0)(6)(0) SS (CO) im