A Parisian Romance — page 18: what you’re looking at

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

A PARISIAN ROMANCE. 9 face beneath the bands of hair of the color of ripe wheat, crowned with the white bonnet, beautiful as it was, and calm and composed, did not wear that expression of blushing rapture which is usually to be seen upon the face of the girl who has just been united to the man of her choice. The bride- groom, however, was smiling enough, a man of perhaps forty-five, who, in the strong sunlight looked a little more, in spite of the clever work of his valet, who had once been in the service of a famous actor, and who was an artist in concealing the ravages of time and dissipation beneath a clever make-up. With astep which was a trifle too elabo- rately springy in its affectation of youth, Baron Chevrial led his bride down the carpeted steps, aided her to enter the coupe, carefully protecting her snowy draperies from contact with the wheels, and then, following her, seated himself by her side. The coachman touched up his horses, and, amid the shouts of the bystanders, the carriage started off ata rapid pace. The other carriages were soon filled with the gayly dressed wedding party and the crowd, the spectacle over, gradually dispersed, leaving the place deserted, save for two gentlemen, in frock coats, light trousers, high hats, and with a flower in their button-holes, who still lingered upon the steps. One was young, twenty-three or four years old, with a slender, well-knit figure, and whose features, while not regularly handsome, wore a bright, frank expression, which is perhaps more Gomicbookstco LA