The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 67: what you’re looking at

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

NN a TS A SS —_——— ee THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT, 61 your punishment. If in addition to this chastise- | ment, you require any other, depend upon it you | shall receive it at my hands. Here is my card.” | “Very good,” responded the other, without even glancing at the card which Octavian handed him. Srx weeks had elapsed since the bridal ceremony: | ‘You shall hear from me!”’—and with these it was now the middle. of October—and the! words, he walked hastily away, brushing off the young couple, having returned to London, took | dust from the sleeve of his coat. possession of a house in Regent’s Park, on the | | Let us pause for a few minutes to describe the side exactly facing the abode of Mr. Armytage. | "young female whom Meredith had thus delivered Zoe naturally wished to be near her father, whom | from the stranger’s audacious conduct, and in she might thus see daily—or at least very often; whom he recognised the beauteous unknown who and Lord Octavian Meredith, having no particular has been before alluded to. Beautiful she indeed choice as to the place of his residence, cheerfully | was, as the reader has been prepared to learn: carried out the wishes of his beauteous bride. | youthful too—for she did not appear to be more During the honeymoon he had found no reason to | than sixteen or seventeen years of age. Though be disappointed in the estimate which he had pre- | slender in figure, the symmetry of her proportions viously formed of Zoe’s intellect, temper, and dis- | constituted a rare model of developing charms. position. All the excellent traits of her mind— | Her countenance was pale—but it was the paleness and she had no bad ones—developed themselves in | of beauty and of health: not the dull dead white- a manner full well calculated to rivet her husband’s | ness of the skin, but the purest complexion with a affections, if they were susceptible of such adhesion | vital animation upon it. Her eyes were large and unto her. She was all gentleness and amiability, | dark: their naturally lustrous beaming was some- candour and truthfulness, ingenuousness and inno- | what subdued by an innate modest bashfulness, cence. Her love, beimg | and partially veiled by the long ebon lashes that appeared to render her beauty more angelically | fascinating—if indeed there had been any room | shade—not that of dull lustreless jet ; but that of for such enhancement of her charms. In short, | | the shining glossiness of the raven’s plumage. It Lord Octavian Meredith had every reason to be| was not merely luxuriant, but of silken softness: the happiest and most contented of men. | and it fell not in ringlets, but in more massive One afternoon, a few days after the return of | tresses on either side of her beautiful countenance. the young couple from the watering-place, Lord | The rosy hue of the lips set off teeth of a dazzling Octavian had occasion to call upon Mr. Armytage | polish and faultlessly even. When beheld in her on some little business connected with the settle- | quiet moments—for she was now naturally excited ment of Zoe’s dowry. We should observe that | by the scene which we have just described—there during the interval since the marriage, Mr. Ar- | wasa stamp of so much guileless truthfulness and mytage had entirely recovered from his attack of | virginal innocence about her, that it was a wonder gout, and had become as bustling and active as | even the most daring libertine could for a single ever. The business between himself and his son- | instant have been so thoroughly mistaken in her in-law was speedily concluded ; and Octavian took | character and disposition as to suppose that she his leave, to retrace his way on foot across the | would listen to his overtures. Still speaking of her Park to his own dwelling. He was walking along | in her tranquil moments, we may add that there that road which, diverging from the main one near | was a slight settled shade of melancholy—or per- the Colosseum, leads to the inner circle, when his | haps rather of pensiveness, on her beautiful coun- attention was suddenly drawn to a scene that was | tenance: yet this, in no way detracting from the taking place a little way ahead. A gentleman, | charms which invested her, only perhaps undefin- having caught the hand of a young female gen- | ably enhanced them. We have already said that teelly but simply dressed, was endeavouring to | she was plainly but neatly dressed; and there was retain it against her will—and was doubtless ad-| a natural grace in every movement and in every dressing her in a style of language which excited | gesture of this sweet girl. Her eyes, though her virtuous indignation; for as she struggled to | bright, had none of passion’s fire in them: on the release her hand from his grasp, her ejaculations | contrary, there was something of dove-like mild- of angered remonstrance reached Octavian’s ear. | ness in her looks, if such an expression can be But, Ah! that figure—he recognised it in a mo- | applied to the darkest eyes as well as to those of ment!—and darting forward, reached the spot | blue. The outline of her countenance was purely swift as an arrow shot from a bow. Thé gentle- Grecian: and: the upper lip had that short rich man—a gentleman in name only, but not in con- | curl which with some women is the type of high duct—was at once stricken to the ground by the | birth—with others an evidence of that instinctive chivalrous and indignant Meredith: for it is only | feminine dignity which disdains falsehood and is fair to observe that if the young person who was | incapable of guile. the object of the genteel ruffian’s outrage, had been Such was the interesting creature with whom an utter stranger to him, he would have acted in | Lord Octavian Meredith now. suddenly found him- precisely the same manner. | self alone. At the instant that he had rushed up to The discomfited individual started up from the | the spot, her countenance was crimsoned with in- ground in a furious rage, — exclaiming, “ By heaven, | dignation and a sense of outraged virtue: the next sir! whoever you are, you shall give me satisfaction | moment, when the audacious libertine was stricken for this insult !” down to the earth, the colour fled from her cheeks, “It is you who have perpetrated the insult | leaving them marble pale. She staggered against against a well-behaved young lady,” was Octavian’s | the railings which skirted the pathway of the road, coldly dignified response, “and you have received | and endeavoured to compose herself, so as to make CHAPTER XII. CHRISTINA. (C(O) nn) E 6)(0)(0) KS elo)