The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 72: what you’re looking at

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

THE JOURNEY TO PARIS ays) success of his enterprise. Loftus was well pleased thereat, and cheerfully paid the promised fee of ten louis, which the waiter still more joyfully consigned to his pocket. Jocelyn then retired to his bedchamber, and soon fell asleep, to dream of his beloved and lovely Louisa; while, on the other hand, Mrs. Ranger and her three fair charges sought their own apartments, well pleased with the prospect of an agreeable travelling-companion during their journey to Paris. On the following morning Mr. Loftus received an invita- tion to breakfast with the ladies; and he was forthwith conducted to the room in which they were assembled. At the first glance which he threw upon Agatha, Emma, and Julia, the sentiment of mingled pity and indignation was deepened in his soul to think that such beautiful creatures should have become entangled in such detestable intrigues. He was, however, far from suspecting that beneath the air of lively, good-tempered artlessness which was natural to them, and which corrupting influences had not as yet materially impaired, there lurked all the nascent tendencies and inclinations toward that thorough depravity which the denizens of fashionable life are so skilled in veiling with smiles, affability, and the glitter of fascinating manners, — as the hideousness of a corpse may be concealed with flowers. He believed them to be the unconscious and beguiled victims, rather than the now willing instruments, of the vilest machinations; and little suspecting that even their very maiden virtue and personal chastity had been sacrificed in the course of execrable training which they had under- gone, he hoped to rescue them from the ways of intrigue and dishonour, and render them worthy, as they were certainly brilliant, members of society. Such were the thoughts which swept through the mind of Jocelyn Loftus on his introduction to the Misses Owen; but as for Mrs. Ranger, he experienced a thorough and unmitigated contempt for her ere he had been three minutes in her society. Not that he at once saw into the depths of her character; but he read enough, through the veil of plausibility wherewith she invested her words and her manners, to assure himself that she was false, hollow- hearted, vain, and cunning. This feeling of dislike he however studiously concealed; for it by no means suited COUN (A) LOOKS (CO)