The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 13: what you’re looking at

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

THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. v4 irreparably ; and he found himself in his old age, | they quitted the humble lodging to which they with ill-health and infirmities growing rapidly | had retired after the conflagration had deprived upon him, reduced to his half-pay—a mere scanty | them of their home. During the journey, Captain pittance. And this too would die with him. What | Lacey implored and enjoined his daughter to ren- was to become of his daughter at his death der herself as agreeable as possible to Mrs. Bailey, Oh, what? There was’ yet another misfortune | —by which, in plain terms, he meant that Eliza in store for the poor Captain and Eliza: for their | was to shake off her low spirits and her looks of faithful domestic, who had been with them so/| sadness by all means in her power. Misfortunes many years, was thrown upon a sick-bed through | as well as anxieties on his daughter’s account, had the shock occasioned by the fire; and im a few | rendered Captain Lacey worldly-minded and selfish: days she breathed her last. | he hoped that in Mrs. Bailey’s gay saloons, Eliza There was a widow lady in London named Mrs. | would captivate some wealthy personage ;—and ever Bailey, who was very distantly related to Captain | ready to jump at conclusions, the Captain regarded Lacey, and with whom he had corresponded at it as almost as good as settled that Eliza should distant intervals. She was rich—occupied a splen- | form a brilliant ailiance. He did not however did mansion at the West End of the metropolis— | impart his views to his daughter; and the poor frequented the best society—-and gave grand | maiden little suspected that he was dreaming of parties. A thorough woman of the world, she) fresh matrimonial projects on her behalf, within had all the callousness, amounting almost to heart- | only a few weeks after the receipt of the frightful lessness, usually characteristic of one who makes | intelligence which had given a death-blow to the fashionable appearances her whole and sole study. | former ones. Though inwardly full of sadness— The only notice she had condescended to take of though feeling that, the first affections of her heart her humble and poor relations at Oxford, was the being so eruelly blighted, she never again could sending them a basket of game and a turkey , love—imdeed though considering it to be a sacred at Christmas, accompanied by a brief note conveying | duty to cling to the image of her lost Bertram,— the compliments of the season ; and the acknowledg- | Eliza assumed as much external calmness as she ment of the gift, together with anexpression of simi- could possibly call to her aid; while the natural lar compliments, formed the extent of the Cap-) vigour of her constitution had prevented the bit- tain’s periodical correspondence with Mrs, Bailey. | terness of affliction from making any ravages upon But now that the poor Captain had such anxious | her beauty, beyond chasing away the colour from cares relative to his daughter, he wrote a long | her cheeks. Therefore when she arrived in Lon- letter to Mrs. Bailey, detailing the serious altera-| don, and was indpduced to her relative Mrs. tion of his cireumstances in comsequence of the | Bailey, she appeared to be of a loveliness so ex- fire. In this letter he spoke with a father’s pride | quisite and so interesting, with the expression of of the exquisite beauty of Eliza, the amiability | pensiveness upon her countenance, that the old of her disposition, and her dutiful conduct as a| lady, in the enthusiasm of joy, gave both herself daughter,—adding that his means had enabled | and her father a weleome that seemed disinter- him, though by dint of great sacrifices, to give her | estedly cordial. an education not altogether apart from certain| It was the month of September when the Laceys elegant accomplishments. Wow, this letter arrived arrived in London; and the greater portion of the at a time when Mrs. Bailey felt the want of some | fashionable world being out of town, it was not new attraction to give zest to her entertainments, | the season for Mrs. Bailey’s parties, She herself which the fashionable world began to consider | seldom went out of town: she disliked the country rather “slow affairs,” the same faces being con-|—hated the sea-side—and would not for worlds stantly met in Mrs. Bailey’s drawing-rooms.. The); give up the amusements of shopping in Regent idea struck her that her requirement might be/| and Bond Streets. It was therefore fortunate for fulfilled in the person of Miss Lacey, if she were | Eliza’s state of mind that she was not at once even only half as beautiful as the paternal pride | called upon to appear in the midst of crowded had depicted her. She accordingly lost no time | assemblies; and during the three months which in writing back to Oxford, assuring Captain Lacey, | now passed after her arrival in London, her grief with much seeming kindness in the wording of her | for her lover’s loss settled itself into such a holy letter, that she sympathized deeply with him in| resignation that she was no longer agitated with his misfortunes; and inviting himself and Eliza | paroxysms of wild grief and convulsive weepings. to come and pass a few months with her in| But the expression of her eyes grew softer: a Grosvenor Square. She enclosed a bank-note for’) melancholy pensiveness settled upon her features, twenty pounds,— begging that the remittance |—relieved however by that half-sad half-sweet might not be taken as an offence, but merely as' a | smile which resignation gives to the human coun- subsidy to defray the travelling expenses of those | tenanee, and which is so touchingly interesting who were about to confer an obligation on herself} when on the beautiful face of woman. by giving her their companionship. The year 1827 was drawing towards its close, Captain Lacey was overjoyed at this really un- | when the gaieties of the metropolis commenced. expected goodness, as he considered it, on the part | At first there were only small parties at Mrs. of his relative. Eliza would fain have lingered a Bailey’s house: but these grew larger and larger few weeks longer at Oxford, to compose her mind | in proportion as the members of the fashionable somewhat after so many recent and frightful cala- | world flocked back to their town-mansions. Thus mities: but she saw that her father was now all | Eliza was not precipitated allin a moment into the - anxiety to get to London—and with her wonted | midst of brilhant assemblies: she was led on by amiable submissiveness, she stifled the half-prayer, | degrees to become accustomed to the bustle, ani- half-remonstrance which had risep to her lips. |} mation, and gaiety of West-End society ; and ! The preparations they had to make were few; and | though she would infinitely rather have remained (C(O) nn) (C 0)(0)() KS (C(O)