The Works of George W. M. Reynolds — page 137: what you’re looking at

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

120 THE COURT OF LONDON The idea that his lordship would go peeping into every room throughout the spacious establishment at once gave wings to the woman’s feet, inasmuch as not for worlds would she have had the mysteries of the various apartments — or at least of two or three of them — violated by an intruder’s gaze. For in one was a pious lady “ whose praise was in all the churches,” now sleeping in the arms of a private in the Horse-guards; in another was a bishop, renowned for his piety, who had brought thither a young girl of about fourteen or fifteen, whom he was initiating in the ways of wicked- ness; in a third apartment there was a judge, the sternest upon the bench, now in company with one of the most . noted prostitutes about town; and in a fourth there was a young lady of high birth, great beauty, and extraordinary accomplishm nts, clasped in the arms of her foreign music- master. | No wonder, therefore, was it if the discreet servant of Mrs. Gale’s establishment felt anxious to prevent the veil being drawn aside from these mysteries; and accordingly, without any further remonstrance or hesitation, did she lead the way up-stairs, followed by the Earl of Curzon and Theodore Varian. “This is the door,’ she said, in a low whisper, as she paused at a particular chamber. The Earl of Curzon’s eyes now glowed with triumph, for he felt that the moment was come when he should be avenged upon Editha for all her former faithlessness toward him and all the treacheries which she had put in practice. Trying the handle of the door and finding that it was locked inside, as indeed he had of course anticipated, the earl unhesitatingly threw himself with all his force against it and burst it open. A scream of terror and an ejaculation of rage burst simultaneously from male and female lips within the room into which Lord Curzon immediately pre- cipitated himself. Lights were burning upon the table, and by the aid thereof the countess and her paramour were at once discovered sitting up, in a startled manner, in the couch. But that paramour, who was he? Not Emmerson the bill-broker, as the Earl of Curzon and Theodore Varian had alike hoped and expected, but the husband of the brilliant Venetia, the handsome and accomplished Lord Sackville! 7 COmMIGbooks (E()