The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 388: what you’re looking at

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366 REYNOLDS’ WORKS a savage yell spring upon her in the shape of a tigress, or in the twinkling of an eye twist the huge coils of a snake around her, — so dread was the fascination, so wildly strange yet likewise awe-inspiring the expression of Sagoo- nah’s eyes. “Go,” said the ayah. “I do not ask why you have | prompted me to this deed, nor who first of all urged you on , to prompt me. Go; it shall be done, and perhaps to-morrow the intelligence will reach your ears that this house ’”’ — and she pointed toward it — “‘ has become the scene of a fearful deed.” With these words the ayah turned abruptly away from the fence, and Madame Angelique, picking up the indig- nantly discarded purse, betook herself across the field toward the main road. It was night, and Christina Ashton could not sleep. The ( weather was exceedingly sultry, indeed most oppressively i so; she had been slightly indisposed the whole day; she a | was restless, uneasy, and feverish. It was twelve o’clock, and she vainly endeavoured to close her eyes. It may be easily | supposed that her thoughts were actively engaged, for when | are the thoughts ever more active than while the head is | pressing a sleepless pillow? She knew that Zoe had taken | her departure from London; a paragraph amongst the fash- ionable intelligence in a morning newspaper had told her this much. Too well, too well could poor Christina conjecture the cause of her amiable friend’s prolonged indisposition, and bitterly, bitterly at times did she blame herself for having been more or less mixed up with that cause. And yet, as ~ the reader knows full well, she was innocent; the snows on the highest peaks of the Alpine mountains were not purer than Christina’s thoughts. | She could not sleep, and it was twelve o’clock. Silence prevailed throughout the habitation; silence was outside too, for the air was stagnant in its heaviness, and not a single leaf in the garden was ruffled. But presently that silence which reigned inside the dwelling was broken —no, not broken — gently and slightly and almost imperceptibly © intruded upon by the softest sound of a step upon the stair. | Yet Christina heard it, and with suspended breath she i listened. Again she heard it, and the thought flashed to | her mind that Sagoonah was violating the pledge she had — % Be ut b> J pan eomicbooks.cony