Tales and Novels — Volume 03: BelindaEdgeworth, Maria
General
Tales and Novels — Volume 03: Belinda
Edgeworth, Maria
Courtship -- Fiction; London (England) -- Fiction; Young women -- Fiction
Lord Delacour, when the paper was shown to him, recognized it
immediately by a private mark which he had put on the outside sheet of
a division of letter paper, which, indeed, he had never given to
Champfort, but which he had missed about the time Marriott mentioned.
Between the leaves of this paper his lordship had put, as it was often
his practice, some bank notes: they were notes but of small value, and
when he missed them he was easily persuaded by Champfort that, as he had
been much intoxicated the preceding night, he had thrown them away with
some useless papers. He rummaged through his writing-desk in vain, and
then gave up the search. It was true that on this very occasion he
gave Champfort the remainder of some mourning paper, which he made no
scruple, therefore, of producing openly. Certain that he could swear
to his own private mark, and that he could identify his notes by their
numbers, &c., of which he had luckily a memorandum, Lord Delacour,
enraged to find himself both robbed and duped by a favourite servant, in
whom he had placed implicit confidence, was effectually roused from his
natural indolence: he took such active and successful measures, that Mr.
Champfort was committed to gaol, to take his trial for the robbery. To
make peace for himself, he confessed that he had been instigated by Mrs.
Freke to get the anonymous letter written. This lady was now suffering
just punishment for her _frolics_, and Lady Delacour thought her fallen
so much below indignation, that she advised Belinda to take no manner
of notice of her conduct, except by simply returning the letter to
her, with “Miss Portman’s, Mr. Vincent’s, and Lord and Lady Delacour’s,
compliments and thanks to _a sincere friend_, who had been the means of
bringing villany to justice.”
So much for Mrs. Freke and Mr. Champfort, who, both together, scarcely
deserve an episode of ten lines.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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