The Mysteries of the Court of London, Vol. 5 — page 309: what you’re looking at

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Net | ee ES NN ome a, aut bust and the arms bare almost to the shoulders. She had arranged her hair in mussive bands, with a few tresses hanging down behind from the knot in which ita chief luxuriance was gathered at the: back of the well-shaped head; and a camelia apt off its glossy darkness with a striking effect.. The aim upon which she was bent imparted a height- encd animation to her countenance; and her eyes shone with even more than their wonted: fires. Sho had resolved to conquer—and that speedily too; and she was already flushed as it were with the foretaste of anticipated triumph. . .. _. Now, as the Hon. Miss Farefield was decided] the female star of the assemblage at the Denisons’, and as Mr. Hawkshaw,was the most important .in- dividual amongst the younger portion of the male ‘gucats, it was quite natural that he should give his arm to Juliana to escort her from the drawing-room to the dining-room; gn¢ Course sat next to her at tablo.e2She put forth all the powers of her conversation*to charm him; and this she did without tho slightest be- trayal of studied effort. Weil knowing what his favourite topics were, she skilfully, but in a manner that seemed perfectly natural, turned the discourse thereon. She seemed to enter into the spirit of the exhilarating sporta of the field—gave him to uuderstand that she wished she lived altogether in the country—and was even astonished at the dex- terity with which she acquitted herself when speak- ing of racing, and hunting, and. steeplo-chasings Until this ovening those topics were Juliana’s utter aversion: she had fancied thet‘ every sporting character smelt ot the stables, and was totally ynfit for the roseate light perfumed atmosphere of drawing-rooms. But now she appeared to enter with enthusiasm into all. that pertained to the spurting world; and skilfully catching hints from tho remarks which Mr. Hawkshaw himself made, sho expanded them into lengthéned ‘disquisitions of licr own. Se Her companion was evidently charmed. Tho more she talked, the deeper became his intorost in her conversation; and presently be found himself galing upon her with a rapture that he had never known in woman's before. New feelin appeared to be taking life in his heart; and as he contempluted her face and her form, the conviction gradually grew upon him that he had never beheld anything so beautiful as those features or so superbly symmetrical as that shapc.e When he looked at her aquiline profile be fancied that she appeared thus to the ‘greatest advantage:. but when ‘she bent her looks upon him and he gased on her full face, catch- ing all the glorious power of her that she was still more beautiful thus. The dinner passed over—the ladies withdrew to the drawing-room—ant the gentlemen remained to sit a little Jonger over their wine. For the first time in his life Mr. Hawkshaw neither appoared to enjoy tho wine nor to mingle in the discourse that was taking place around him. His thoughts were all THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURD, eyes, he thought. q : . @ with Miss Fareficld: he wonderad that when he had met her in society on the former occasions that she was in Lincolnshire, bo had taken ‘yo more notice of her than of the other ladies of his ac- quaintance; and he could not help asking him- self what all these ings :ineant, and whether they constituted that love of which he had read in novels and of which he had so frequently heard cP? My. Denison and the other gentle- after several vain endeavours to rally him into his | wonted . joviality, they began dropping merry and good-natured hints to the effect that he must have lost his heart. Then, the confusion which Ly felt, and the gush of strange emotions that seemed to pour through his breast, sending a thrill along every fibre and through every vein, made him sus- pect that they had really touched upon the right end be of } chord At longth the summons to coffee arrived; and by ont ot those sudden inconsistencies, or rather eccen- tricities, which frequéntly mark the human cha- racter, Mr, Hawkshaw resolved that he would not throw himself in the way of Juliana again, lest his friends and acquaintances should in reality have good reason to say that he was smitten with her. Perhaps too he wished to put his feelings to the teat:;.end ‘perhaps also, he was afraid of being ac- tually enspared into. those matrimonial aspirationn against which he had hitherto maintained his heart in such perfect inaccessibility. ° Therefore, on enter- ing the drawing-room, which was spacious, and where by this-time most of the guests who were invited to the ball (faving arrived sinoo dinner) wore assembled, Mr. Hawkshaw lounged about amongst them, endeavouring to assume an easy un- constrained air: but as he stood conversing firs with one ecqugintance, then with another, he caught himeelf falling into fita"of abstraction, and his eyos unconsGicusly wandering to where the Hon. Miss Farefield was seated amongst}, some ladies in another part of theroom. | : On her side, she perfectly well comprehended what was passing‘in Mr. Hawkshaw’s mind. With- out appearing to observe hit she nevertheless kept her eyes almost cunstantly fixed upon him from beneath the shade of the long dark fringes. She noticed his moods of abstraction—she beheld his looke wandering towards her—and sho likewise per- ceived that every time he. lounged about, he halted nearer and nearer to where she was seated. Thus ahe had no difficulty in penetrating tke kind of struggie that was going on within him; and with a secret. glow of triumph she felt the conviction that he was ensnared. | _ Presently the band,. which had been procured from. Lincoln to attend upon the occasion, struck up its awelling harmony as a signal for the dancing to commence. A young nobleman, of high rank but wretchedly affected manners, advanced and re- quested the honour of Juliana’s han. for the first guadrille: but well aware that Mr. Hawkshaw did table nbdticed His abstracted mood; and’ concentrated gn the splendid creatlire who had | not dance, she' was about to refuse.on the plea of charmed him during the hour of dinner, and who | headache—wher it suddenly occurred to her that only so recently left his side. It seemed to him as | in the mazes of the dance she would be afforded an if some new and hitherto unknown influence had | opportunity of displaying her fine form to its ut- been shed upon him: he longed for the summons to ; most advantage. Besides, if Hawkshaw were really the drawing-room to arrive that he might once more smitten—as she had no doubt he was—it woul! have an opportunity of behulding and conversing ' pique his jealousy to behold her the companion 0‘ i ¢ \ creteenteeess ween —-——- En, LOAO© (C©) SS (CO)