The Works of George W. M. Reynolds — page 256: what you’re looking at

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

BEHIND THE SCENES 239 we will not say the hearts — of fashionable rakes and aris- tocratic libertines. But presently an old man, at least four or five years past sixty, — yet dressed in the very height of fashion, and made up with all the artifices of the toilet so as to give as youthful an appearance as possible to his lean and shrivelled form, —accosted Henrietta Leyden. He wore a wig as punctil- iously curled as any that may be seen in a hairdresser’s shop in the Burlington Arcade; the set of false teeth fixed in his mouth had cost five hundred guineas; his eyebrows were stained with a black dye; and he affected to walk with a jaunty and debonair gait, just as if all the fires of youth were still animating his frame and the vigour of health giving elasticity to his limbs. But this old man was one of the richest nobles of the day, and it would be difficult throughout the ranks of a profligate aristocracy to discover one more profligate than Lord Everton. ‘““ How is it, pretty Miss Leyden,” said the old nobleman, smiling as blandly and affably as he could through the agency of his false teeth, ‘‘ that you are standing thus apart? Every young lady has her friend or admirer or gallant to converse with save yourself.” “My lord,’”’ replied Henrietta, “‘ I do not seek such com- panionship as that to which your lordship has alluded,”’ and the blood mantled upon the girl’s cheeks so as even to be visible through the rouge that was upon them, for this was not the first time she had been subjected to the persecutions of Lord Everton. — “Come, my dear, you must not be so short and abrupt in your answers to me. I seek to be your friend. Why can’t — you hold up that pretty face of yours, and let me see you smile? ”’ ‘Smile! ” ejaculated the girl, with an accent of bitterness. Then, as if vexed at having allowed herself to betray for even an instant the feeling that was dominant in her heart, she turned abruptly away. “ Stop one moment, Miss Leyden. I wish to speak to you,’ said the old lord. “ It is serious, very serious indeed.”’ Henrietta, surprised at these words, did turn back, and now her deep blue eyes were fixed with a sort of curiosity upon Lord Everton’s countenance. “I wish I could see you happy,” he said, affecting a deep Gomiicdoo <S (CO)