The Works of George W. M. Reynolds — page 362: what you’re looking at

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

THE SISTERS _ 345 not, put implicit faith in the bare word of the Marquis of Leveson, without corroboration and without proof. Nor did he for a moment appear to believe that I should rest satishied with mere statements unsupported by evidence. He assured me that his only aim was to save me from becom- ing the victim of an adventurer, and that his conduct toward me was inspired by the feelings which a father might cherish toward a daughter. In a word, my dear Clara, he spoke so kindly, so reasonably, and so conscientiously, to all appearance, and then, too, I was so very, very unhappy, so lonely, and so much in want of a friend and adviser, that I readily promised to be guided by his counsel. He bade me remain at the hotel, assigning me to the care of the land- lady and her daughters, who were worthy people, and seeing that I was unhappy, did their best to console me in my affliction. To be brief, the marquis took me late that same night in his carriage to the prefecture of police; and there, as it appeared to me, I received the fullest, the cruellest, and, oh, the most fatal confirmation of all that his lordship had previously told me.”’ Louisa Stanley now related to her sister the details of all that she had heard or seen at the prefecture of police, and which are already well known to the reader. ‘““ My dearest girl,” said Clara, ‘‘ I have already told you that your intended husband does really bear a false name, but that he has assumed it through no dishonourable motives. Therefore, the entry in the prefect’s Black Book is virtually nothing more or less than a record of a base pretext for a most arbitrary arrest. ‘That the prefect should have repeated to you the calumnies previously levelled against Jocelyn by the Marquis of Leveson can be explained either by sup- posing the French functionary to be as vile as the English nobleman himself, or else to have been easily misled and deceived by that nobleman. Then, with regard to the third incident which appeared to you a corroborative proof of Jocelyn’s perfidy, namely, the occurrences of the prison- chambers, all this doubtless arose from circumstances pur- posely arranged and cunningly combined at a special mo- ment to produce particular effects. ‘There was an aperture, you say, in the wall between two chambers, and you were led to believe that this aperture had been formed as a means of communication and intercourse between Jocelyn and CORNICLOO© Ss (C(O)