The Works of George W. M. Reynolds — page 314: what you’re looking at

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

/ VENETIA AND HER ADMIRERS 297 to thé saloon belonging to the suite of apartments which she and her husband occupied at Carlton House; and alter re- maining there for.a short time, until she had entirely regained an outward appearance of calmness as well as some of the lost carnation hues apon her cheeks, she rang the bell and ordered her serious-looking valet, who answered the sum- mons, to go and inform his Royal Highness and his guests that she should be happy to see them to take coffee with her. Half an hour afterward, the prince, the marquis, the earl, and the baronet, accompanied, of course, by Lord Sackville himself, repaired to the saloon where Venetia was thus awaiting their presence; and as the company partook oi the fragrant coffee and the choice liqueurs which followed she conversed as gaily and as cheerfully as uf she had ex- perienced no sudden paroxysm of low spirits during the entire evening. Sir Douglas Huntingdon had seated himself next to her at the tea-table; and the influence of the wine he had drunk, mingling with that of her transcendent charms and the melody of her fluid voice, filled him with a species of delirious ‘intoxication which rendered all control of his feelings a matter of utter impossibility. Availing himself, therefore, of a moment when no one else observed him, and hurried along by an irresistible current of ecstatic emotions, he whispered, “‘ By Heaven! Venetia, you are adorable to- night! O for one hour of your love, and I would cheerfully resign all the remainder of my existence to enjoy it.” ‘‘ Are you serious, and would you do me a great — a very ereat service?’’ she inquired, in a low, deep whisper, ac- companying her words by a look which seemed to blend a’ profound earnestness of purpose. with a tender intimation that she was willing to pay the highest price which woman can give for the service to which she had just alluded. “Tell me what I can do for you, adorable being,” mur- mured the enraptured baronet, ‘‘ and I will peril my life in your service.”’ Venetia threw a hurried glance around; and perceiving that this rapid and whispered colloquy at the tea-table was still unobserved, she darted a sudden look of vivid intelligence upon the baronet, saying, in an equally hurried but low- breathed tone at the same time, “ I[ will write presently upon CoOnniclooolks (C(O)