The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 147: what you’re looking at

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

120 THE COURT OF LONDON Wildly she cast around her eyes, as if in search of something that should offer a suggestion how to act in this cruel, this torturing emergency. But no inspiration did she derive from the fevered glance which she thus flung about on all sides. Her bewilderment and perplexity increased every moment. She dared not kill him, and yet she dared not let him live. If she murdered him, the deed was sure to be discovered; if she spared him, he would reveal in his ravings enough to send her to the scaffold. With either alternative her own fate appeared to be sealed. God’s revenge against murder now seemed to be approaching with inevitable certainty; her crimes were on the verge of exposure and of punishment. Fate was building up a wall of adamant around her; she could see it rising slowly, slowly, but surely, surely, on every side, as if 1t were a sepulchre that was closing in upon her. Oh! no human language can depict the torture which the wretched woman now endured for the space of ten long minutes; no power of description can convey an idea of the excruciating agony which rent her mind as she was forced to look her position in the face. There lay her paramour, writhing in hideous convulsions, like-one possessed of a devil; and there stood she, with the ghastly pallor of her cheeks appearing through a rouge which, though so artistic- ally laid on, now appeared to be nought save a mere plaster of dullest red. At length Frederick Dray grew calmer; but though his ravings sank into low mutterings and his convulsions sub- sided into a nervous restlessness, he did not seem to recover the full use of his intellect. On the contrary, his brain appeared to be wandering; and his eyes glared wildly upon the countenance of Mrs. Brace as she seated herself by the side of the couch. He did not altogether recognize her, that is to say, he had no distinct idea who she was; but he contemplated her with mingled aversion, terror, and mistrust. He was in this condition when the door opened gently, and a domestic introduced the medical man who was in the habit of attending upon Mrs. Brace and the inmates of her establishment. As he approached the bed, the invalid’s excitement was revived; and the couch shook and creaked beneath his convulsing form. Then, on the doctor’s taking CORNIELIOOLKKS (E()