The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 110: what you’re looking at

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

92 REYNOLDS’ WORKS “Is there anything you require, ma’am?” asked Mrs. Webber, with a certain constraint, in consequence of what was passing in her own mind. ‘‘ Nothing,” replied Lettice, her tongue now unloosening, and then she muttered a faint “ Good night,” which Mrs. Webber did not catch, and therefore did not respond to, but quitted the room with the impression that the lady was a proud, haughty, and reserved being who did not choose to enter into any discourse with her. That constraint with which the housekeeper had spoken, and which, as the reader has seen, in reality arose from the state of her own guilty feelings, was, under a similar influ- ence, interpreted by Lettice into a studied coolness on the old woman’s part, so that when Mrs. Webber had retired, Lettice flung herself upon a chair in an awful dismay, mur- muring, “‘ I am suspected, I shall be discovered, this woman is evidently more than half-convinced that I am an impos- tress. At all events she will give some hint to her master to put him upon his guard; he will question me more closely than he otherwise would have done, he will purposely speak to me of things concerning which I cannot possibly give an answer, I shall be detected, exposed, sent to prison, tried, transported, or perhaps hanged,” for the young woman knew not very well which offences were capital or which were not, and her own terrors naturally made her see every- thing in the worst light. She wrung her hands in despair; she bitterly repented of the course into which temptation had led her, and whereas until the last few minutes she had conceived her position to be entirely safe, she now felt astounded at what she looked upon as her egregious folly in having embarked in such an enterprise. She would have given worlds, had she pos- sessed them, to be safe out of the house. A mortal terror was upon her; at one moment she shivered with a cold sen- sation, the next instant she felt as if her veins were on fire. But still recurred the question — what was she to do? To carry on the imposture now appeared hopelessness itself — utter madness. While she sat in these painful meditations, she heard Mrs. Webber come stamping up the stairs, and then loudly closing the door of her room. The reader knows very well for what purpose this noise was made, but Let- tice interpreted it through the medium of her own fears. CORMICOOOLK