The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 343: what you’re looking at

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

THE DAGGER 321 Having thus spoken, she locked the door of the chamber, and placing the key under the pillow, lay down on the couch, bidding the maid undress herself and share it with her. The young woman ventured not a single question, nor even a word of comment. She comprehended full well that the duke had experienced an indignant repulse, and in her heart she was far from sorry, for even in the short time that Indora had been beneath that roof her amiable manners had made a certain impression on all the domestics who had happened to come in contact with her. Thus the night was passed by the virtuous and well- principled Indora in fullest security, but it was not as a guarantee for such security that she had insisted upon the companionship of the servant-woman. She had no fear that the duke would renew his infamous attempt; it was in order that not the slightest breath of suspicion might tarnish her fair fame, that no whisper of scandal might have even the faintest ground to asperse her honour, that she had rung thus violently for the dependent, and commanded that dependent to remain with her throughout the night. But how was this night passed by the Duke of March- mont? We cannot tell. The eye of Heaven alone beheld him in the solitude of his own chamber, to which — baffled, defeated, ghastly, and trembling — he retired. But to judge by his appearance when he issued from that chamber at an early hour in the morning, the night must have been a terrible one for him. He looked as if his limbs had not been once stretched upon his couch, as if his eyelids had not for a single moment closed in slumber; so haggard and careworn was he that he appeared as if a preternatural hand had seized upon him and hurled him in a moment a dozen years onward along the pathway of time. On issuing from that chamber between six and seven in the morning, be bore a letter in his hand; and summoning a female domestic, bade her take the letter to the Eastern lady’s apartment, and bring him back the response. Its contents were limited to a few lines, declaring that dazzled by her beauty, and infatuated to a degree that overpowered his reason, he had obeyed an impulse which was irresistible, that in the humblest terms he craved her forgiveness, and that he besought her to grant him a five minutes’ interview before he took his departure, which he would do the moment COL (C Doo S (E©) im