The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 79: what you’re looking at

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

CHAPTER VII EDITHA It was on the fifth evening after the incidents just related; and if we peep into the Countess of Curzon’s boudoir between eight and nine o’clock, we shall observe her ladyship occupied with the elegant mysteries of the toilet. And yet the word mysteries scarcely applies in the present instance; for no need had Editha of cosmetics, sophistications, or adven- titious appliances to enhance the natural splendour of her charms. No succedaneous enamel was required for those pearly teeth that were without spot or blemish and which shone between the lips that were full and red as a luscious fruit of the tropics; no art could shed upon the cheeks the hue of a richer carnation than that which the warm blood itself gave in its mantling glow; no dye nor factitious confection could crown the dark hair with a brighter glory than its own purply glossiness. And though the complexion of this lady was of Oriental duskiness, yet would it have been a very folly and a shame to have endeavoured to mitigate its dark beauty by the appliance of aught whiter or make that skin fairer. For that soft and delicate tint of bronze, the softest and most delicate that can possibly be conceived, gave her the appearance of the warm Andalusian or glowing Italian, as if she were one of the impassioned daughters of the sunny south. Her eyes, so dark and yet so full of living lustre, seemed like ebony condensing all the brilliancy of diamonds. As suns they appeared to burn those who gazed upon them, and as suns also did they seem as if worlds of bliss and realms of paradise lay concealed in the depths of their glory. She had chosen for her evening toilet a rich satin dress of 58 GomiGcbdooks (C(O)