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.

164 REYNOLDS’ WORKS his sister with him in the metropolis, he insisted that she should receive the addresses of a particular friend of his own, —a nobleman of rank and wealth, but who was old enough to be Lady Isabella’s father. Vainly did my poor mother beseech that her brother would not sacrifice her so cruelly; he was inexorable, and perhaps you have already seen enough of my uncle to be aware that whatever idea, whim, or caprice he takes into his head must be gratified. Perhaps he thought that he was only doing a brother’s duty toward a young orphan sister; perhaps his motives were good, since his aim was to secure for her a prosperous position. At all events, as I have said, he remained deaf to her entreaties, and matters progressed so far that the day was fixed for her elderly suitor to conduct her to the altar. At that crisis Mr. Vincent arrived in London on a temporary leave of absence from his regiment in the provincial town; he and Lady Isabella met, and they resolved to part no more. She fled with him to the dwelling of a female relation of his own, and so soon as circumstances would permit their hands were united. Alas, my poor mother! she found herself discarded by all her relations, even by her own brother, but she had a consolation in my father’s devoted love.” Here Isabella paused for a few minutes, during which she wiped away the tears which the recital of her parent’s history drew from her eyes, and Christian, taking her hand, pressed it tenderly. ‘‘T do not remember my father,”’ continued the young maiden, in a soft, plaintive voice; ‘‘ he died when I was only three years old. You may easily suppose that the widow of a lieutenant in the army did not find herself very happily placed in a pecuniary sense. It was for my sake — for the sake of her orphan child — that she wrote imploring letters to her aunt and her brother, beseeching their forgiveness and their succour. I regret to say that so far as forgiveness was concerned their hearts were closed against her, but her brother the earl consented to make her an allowance of three hundred pounds a year. This was at least some consolation to my poor mother, for she knew that her child whom she loved so tenderly would be beyond the reach.of want, and that she would likewise be enabled to give me a good educa- tion. It was in Lincolnshire that my father died, and it was there that my mother continued to dwell. I was edu- EORNICLOOO €orr