The Seamstress; or, The White Slave of England — page 17: what you’re looking at

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

ee ; ~e 10 THE SEAMSTRESS. ring the front-door bell. She paused and hesi- tated: but at the moment when this bewilderment was becoming even painful to herself, a footman in a splendid livery issued from the mansion. To him did she submit the cause of her embarrassment; and, after having bestowed upon the maiden a look of such mingled insolence and patronising fami- liarity that it brought the warm blood up into her cheeks, the lace-bedizened flunkey condescended to turn back a few paces and escort her into the hall. There a fat porter bade her pass into a waiting- room, while a page took charge of the box con- taining the velvet-dress and the note enclosing the bill. Nearly an hour went by, while Virginia remained in that waiting-room. Several other persons, both male and female, were introduced thither in the same manner: but they were all speedily summoned, one after another, to the interviews which they sought with the Duke or Duchess, or with the su- perior officials of the mansion. At last Virginia began to think she was forgotten altogether: then the idea struck her that she had done wrong to wait at all;—and then, again, she reassured herself on this point by the recollection that she had been positively enjoined by Miss Dulcimer to wait for the money, “as the Duchess was sure to send it down.” In fine, at the expiration of an hour, the page whom she had before seen entered the waiting-room and bade her follow him. Virginia was now conducted across the magnifi- cent marble hall—along a gallery ornamented with pictures and statues—and thence up a private stair- ease leading to the apartments of the Duchess. On the threshold of that suite the page withdrew; and a lady’s-maid, in a tasteful morning-dress, now be- came Virginia’s guide. They traversed an ante- room where three or four other female dependants, dressed in a similar style of tasteful elegance, were gossipping round the fire that blazed in the grate: then they passed through a small but beautifully- furnished saloon, embellished with all the expensive trifles and costly nick-nacks which are cf so little veal use and on which thousands and thousands may be lavished by an extravagantly-disposed woman. Beyond this apartment there was a boudoir, where the most elegant refinement mingled with a certain voluptuous luxuriousness,—an effect produced by the sofas with their large downy cushions, the thick carpet into which the feet sank deep, the numerous mirrors, the pictures whose subjects were of classic love-scenes, the alabaster statues representing groups of naked Graces and Bayaderes, the perfumed atmosphere, and the miniature orangery formed by the double window. From this enchanting place a floor opened into a large and magnificently furnished bed-chamber, where a lady of grand and imposing beauty was trying on the velvet-dress, assisted by r sprightly-looking I’rench femme-de-chambre, or abigail. , CHAPTER IV. THE DUCHTSS, Tue Duchess of Belmont was one of the finest wo- peared in all the glory of her meridian charms. Thirty-seven winters had passed over her head without marring the rich gloss that sate like a lustre upon her dark hair, or dimming the light that shone in the depths of her superb hazel eyes;—and the suns of thirty-seven summers seemed to have dealt with her glowing loveliness as with a delicious fruit of the tropics, and ripened it into a luxurious deve- lopment. Tall and nobly formed, her figure was full of symmetry and grace, even in its grand propor- tions: the richness of its contours bordered just sufficiently upon eimbonpoint to render her a splen- did woman, without militating against a general appearance of feminine softness. Her countenance was remarkably handsome. The classic outline of her features left nothing for the most fastidious critic to desire: but in their expres- sion the pride of lofty rank was blended with a look of strong sensuality. It was a countenance admira- bly adapted to bear the stamp of genius and shine with the radiancy of that etherial light which the lamp of the mind can alone shed upon the human face: for assuredly had nature intended that high, open, and polished brow to bear the impress of the noblest thoughts, and those large, lustrous hazel eyes to reflect the glories of a brilliant intellect. But the false and factitious system of rearing, train- ing, and education to which all females in “high life’ are subjected, not only left the rich treasures of her mind utterly unexplored, but even checked and finally subdued those endeavours which they naturally made to develope themselves of their own accord. Thus, being nurtured in the usual hollow and heartless style peculiar to her sphere, she had fallen into the same ways of acting and thinking as those shallow-minded, frivolous, and self-sufficient beings by whom she was surrounded: her superior intellect became like a rare and delicate flower chok- ing amidst the briars through which it vainly endeavours to push its own wholesome growth ;— and thus in due course did the worldly pride of rank and station usurp the throne where the sxsthe- tic pride of genius should have asserted its empire, while the grossness of the sense superseded the lofty purity and refining influence of the senti- ment. Proud as a Duchess and vain as a woman, her Grace’s manner would have proved intolerable on the part of her inferiors, had it not been for a cer- tain condescension which, without being positively amiable, mitigated her arrogance and self-sufficiency. Thus, even while standing upon the pedestal of her pride and her vanity, she could afford to distribute a few patronising looks upon those who gazed up from below;—and there were even moments when these looks would expand into smiles, in acknow- ledgment of any homage offered up to her elevated rank or her superb beauty. And beautiful—or rather grandly handsome, she indeed was! We have already said that her hair was dark—that her eyes were hazel—and that her profile was chiselled in the perfection of classic elegance: we may now add that her complexion was dazzling fair—that her mouth was small, with lips resembling moist coral—and that her teeth were white as ivory. Nothing could exceed the sculptural richness of the proudly arching neck, the splendid bust, the sloping men of the day; aud she had now reached that age | shoulders, and ‘the rounded arms;—while every when, with her maguificent style of beauty, she ap- | attitude when standing, and every moyement when EOMIGooOO Meee a a a a a A A I I ie a |