The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 25: what you’re looking at

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

6 THE COURT OF LONDON looks, and a disinterested beholder would have thought that so handsome and elegant a young man was indeed well fitted to lead so charming a bride to the altar. Miss Bathurst and Penelope, who officiated as bridesmaids, were both beautifully dressed, as was also Mrs. Arbuthnot; and Doctor Copperas, proud of the honour of being selected to give the bride away, whispered to Miss Bathurst that his only regret was that ‘‘so eminent a man and shrewd an observer of human nature as Doctor Thurston was not present to enrich his phrenological knowledge by contemplating the counte- nances of the happy couple.”’ On passing toward the altar, Sackville noticed Sir Douglas Huntingdon and the Earl of Curzon, to whom he bowed, and he could not prevent a gleam of triumph from appearing for a moment upon his countenance. The baronet returned his salutation with friendly familiarity, the earl with cold hauteur. Venetia looked neither to the right nor to the left, and did not therefore observe them. Not only, however, was she noticed by her two unsuccess- ful suitors, but also by Valentine Malvern, who started on catching the first glimpse of her countenance, for it instan- taneously struck him that he had seen her before. The where, the when, and the circumstances also flashed to his mind in a moment; and he contemplated her with a more earnest attention as she passed up the central avenue of the church. There was a mingled expression of astonishment and doubt in his features as he thus followed her with his eyes; and when she reached the altar and her countenance was no longer visible, her back being now turned toward him, he said, in a low whisper, to the Earl of Curzon, “ Is that Miss Trelawney? ”’ “ It 1s,” replied the nobleman. ‘Then I must be mistaken,” thought Valentine to him- self; but resuming his seat in the pew and bending his head forward, he gave way to the reflections that were now upper- most in his mind. The clergyman and clerk had in the meantime taken their places at the communion table, and the marriage ceremony commenced. Scarcely had it begun when two more in- dividuals entered the church, one taking his place somewhat noisily in a pew, and the other planting himself in the re- motest angle of the sacred edifice. The former was Captain (COI (-) LOOK KS (E(0)