The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 335: what you’re looking at

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

302 THE COURT OF LONDON We have said that Venetia had chosen to pass the entire day alone. In the evening, as her husband was going to the masked ball, and would therefore not be home till late, she removed from their usual chamber into the elegant seclusion of her own boudoir, and retiring to bed early, she soon fell into a sound and refreshing sleep. Having passed through the wondrous mazes and fanciful intricacies of several pleas- ant dreams, a shadow appeared all on a sudden to fall upon the sunlight of her thoughts, and the pleasurable nature of her visions underwent a rapid change, plunging her into the horrors of a nightmare. At length she awoke with a start, and, sitting up in bed, experienced an ineffable sensation of relief on finding herself in her own boudoir instead of the vile den where imagination had just been plunging her. Upon the night-table near the couch burned a silver lamp of exquisite workmanship, and which was fed with a per- fumed oil compounded expressly for the use of Carlton House. On the larger table, which stood in the middle of the room, were several letters, together with an object which appeared to Venetia’s eyes to be a jewel-case. ‘“ Jessica has placed upon that table all the missives which have arrived to-day,’ thought Venetia to herself. Then consulting a watch which she took from beneath her pillow, she found that it was just midnight. Only midnight, and she had slept so soundly that she felt fully awake, without the slightest inclination to slumber again. The idea struck her that she would at least ascertain what that jewel-case meant, even if she did not examine her correspondence.- Stepping therefore from the couch, her naked feet and ankles tripping glancingly in the dazzling polish of their whiteness and firmness upon the rich carpet, and with the drapery hanging so negligently about her form that all the richness and grandeur of its luxuriant but firm proportions were displayed, she approached the table, opened the jewel-case, and found that it contained a magnifi- cent string of pearls of the largest size she had ever seen. But from whom did this gift come? If the prince were the donor, he would have presented them with his own hand, as was his invariable custom. The pearls therefore assuredly came not from his Royal Highness. There was no note, or card, or any written intimation inside the box, or fastened to it, to aid Venetia in her conjectures. Her curiosity was Gomicbooks (E(0) mn