The Works of George W. M. Reynolds — page 267: what you’re looking at

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

CHAPTER XXIV THE AUDIENCE AND THE LETTER It was a little past noon on the same day, and her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales was walking in the garden, attended by Agatha, Emma, and Julia, as ladies in waiting, the other three ladies of her suite not being on duty for this day. The Baron ee was likewise present as equerry in waiting. Her Royal Highness was at this time forty-five years of age. She was stout; her embonpoint had expanded into luxuriance, slightly perhaps approaching to coarseness. Her cheeks had a somewhat heightened colour upon them, which was not exactly that of health, but seemed to indicate a love of good living. Nevertheless she was temperate and abstemious, and that inclination to ruddiness was entirely natural. Her neck, being totally deficient in that graceful arching which gives a statuesque and dignified air to a well-_ dressed woman, had the same awkwardness of appearance as if it were short. Her eyes were handsome and of a fine blue, indicating good temper and generosity of heart. It was perhaps this expression, added to a placid, unaffected smile, which from her girlhood had seemed stereotyped upon her lips, which to some degree prevented the observer from noticing the shade of mourntulness which nevertheless had for years past been growing upon her countenance; and as her disposition was naturally lively and vivacious, she did not outwardly display as much feeling as she inwardly experi- enced relative to the misfortunes that had overtaken her and the bitter hatred of which her husband made her the victim. In a word, that she was an amiable, well-meaning, kind-hearted woman, there can be no doubt; that she was thoughtless, and that her manners were characterized with 250 CONNIE OO KS, (EC)