The Young Duchess; or, Memoirs of a Lady of Quality — page 239: what you’re looking at

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

and, to be brief, all circumstances combined to impel her irresistibly towards Hippolyte de Man- deville. ‘“’You have understood me,” she murmured, ‘“and you have comprehended what answer my lips would frame if you demanded of me whether it were possible that in return for all the devotion and the friendship you have promised, I could give you my love? And now leave me—at least for a few minutes. Let me compose myself ere I mingle again with this gay crowd.” Mandeville pressed her hand and issued from the box. The Duchess threw herself back on the seat and gave way to her reflections. But it is not necessary to chronicle what was now pass- ing in her thoughts: her feelings towards Man- deville have already been sufficiently analyzed to enable the reader to follow in the channel of her present meditations. Some minutes elapsed; and then the No. 29.—THE Youne Ducusss, Duchess, Se -— we Nr aN . ey ee ’ ‘ >. ARREST h SN Ss S552 \ Ne Aut (i Haga sutiy ni 4 thy ANA Ay wit NTT ON ry t FSA thy MW ts, a Wr 4, En-C 2 eorle. & -——— ° rising from her seat, leant over the parapet of the box and gazed upon the varied and interesting scene which was spread before her. But gradually she relapsed into the train of meditations from which she had just before aroused herself: the scene became a brilliant confusion—her reverie deepened—and she was still leaning over the parapet of the box. All that was-most fasci- nating and agreeable on the part of Mandeville— all that was most attractive in his language and his looks filled her imagination; and she was already revelling in the idea of possessing such an admirer,—thinking to herself that if she must err, it were venial indeed to go astray with such an one as he. Her heart was thrilling with a deep rapture, and a smile was upon her coral lips. She felt a hand laid upon her own as it rested upon the parapet of the box: she raised her eyes—the smile was expanding into a still more delicious sweetness on her lipsp—the mask YN Wn) COMO Colin