A Final Triumph; or, A Lady Bachelor — page 97: what you’re looking at

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

PENALTIES. . 95 this Jatter accomplishment appears to be very “* taking ”’ with young gentlemen. Her eyes were large, colorless, atid lacked expression; her features were prominent, and save for a brilliant complexion, would have been coarse. A vertain kind of brilliant complexion is the frailest pos- sessiun of beauty; it covers a multitude of defects, but, like the giggling, is very ** taking.’’? But, alas! when it fades -—aud it issure to fade—there succeeds a change so marked that it is almost like a transformation; the large eyes stand out from their circling dark rings like the moon in a haze; the nose, with its flaring nostrils, becomes the prominent feature, and—well, every one has seen and knows. It has always been a mystery to me that young men are so blind. Often one will meet a young married couple; the man will be handsome and the wife singularly plain, and we hear the remark, ‘‘ How could he have married such a hideous-looking creature?’’ We quote literally. The question is answered above. He met and married when the brilliant complexion glamoured over the otherwise coarse features; the complexion lost its brilliancy, and the features, unaided by its radiance, remained set in sallow- ness. Well, the lady and gentleman came out, as I have intimated, and a little later Eloise, with her refined face, with its proof of lasting beauty, passed along, and Miss Brilliant Complexion stared at her, while her companion glanced in admiration and inquired: ‘* Who is that lovely girl?’’ “Girl ?? followed the exclamation. ‘‘* Why, that wom- an is Miss Studevant. She is thirty-five, if she is 4 day. Mrs, Eagle knew her fifteen or sixteen years ago. She says Eomichbooks Ps. * ag ey Oe aes Se eee en AT en ee eee a aoe -