The Works of George W. M. Reynolds — page 113: what you’re looking at

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

96 THE COURT OF LONDON even the ordinary shrewdness of her sex, and thus was it that she looked further than her first conjectures for a solu- tion of the occurrence which had so much bewildered her. Having once experienced the glimmering of suspicion, Venetia was not long in thinking of the means which would either confirm or refute it. Issuing from the boudoir, she crept stealthily along the passage, and was about to listen at Mrs. Malpas’s door when the sounds of male voices, apparently in altercation and coming from the room opposite, somewhat alarmed her. ‘These voices were in reality the colonel’s and captain’s, but as the door was shut, Venetia recognized them not. Wondering what was the meaning of that apparent quarrelling, and who the men could be, — for it was her housemaid’s apartment whence the voices issued, — Venetia hurried back to her boudoir, for she did not choose to run the risk of being seen loitering about in the passage. But now, why did not Jessica return? Where was she? What was she doing? What could be detaining her? Twenty minutes had elapsed, and still she returned not. Lady Sackville grew nervous and impatient. Those male voices in her housemaid’s room had filled her with fresh misgivings, and she almost regretted that she had not entered to ascer- tain who the individuals were. Her uneasiness became intolerable, and she resolved to sally forth again in search © of Jessica. But just at the moment when she opened the boudoir door a second time, she beheld what she took to be a female figure issue from her housemaid’s room, and in- stantaneously recognizing that servant’s cap and cotton dress, Venetia called her, in a peremptory manner, by name. She then turned hurriedly back into the boudoir, for her excitement was increased at the idea that the housemaid herself had been present in the room with the men, whoever they were, that had been speaking in such angry tones. Here we must pause for a moment to observe that the housemaid was a very tall, gawky young woman, and thus was it that, in the excitement and confusion of her ideas, Venetia did not notice at the instant that the figure which emerged so suddenly from the room farther down the passage was much too tall even for the overgrown housemaid. But, on the other hand, what was the surprise of Colonel Mal- pas — for he it was, dressed in the female apparel — on CORNICLIOO KS (E(0) am