The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 87: what you’re looking at

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

66 THE COURT OF LONDON at the bottom. This door opened into a by-street, and a female figure, muffled in an ample cloak and wearing a thick black veil, at once crossed the threshold. The door was closed and locked again, and Editha, fol- lowed by the muffled figure, hastened up into the bed- chamber. The newcomer now threw off her bonnet, veil, and cloak, and revealed the bewitching person of Miss Gertrude, the lady’s-maid. A somewhat singular scene now took place; for, on the one hand, Lady Curzon began to put off her magnificent apparel, while, on the other hand, Gertrude likewise pro- ceeded to undress herself. Had any concealed observer been nigh, and in a position to peep at all that was going on, he could not fail to have noticed that the lady and the lady’s-maid were exactly of the same height, but that the figure and bust of Gertrude were the least thing fuller and more swelling than the lighter symmetry of her mistress. Nevertheless, the garments of the one would fit the other, as was indeed very soon shown on the present occasion; for while Editha assumed the modest apparel of her dependent, the latter proceeded to deck herself in the brilliant vesture of the countess. Even to the very pearls and other orna- ments did Gertrude take, as it were, the place of her mis- tress; and during the exchange of garments a great deal of roguish laughter and a great many sly looks passed between the lady and the lady’s-maid. At length, when these mysterious toilets were completed, Editha assisted Gertrude to envelop herself in the splendid ermine cloak, the hood of which the girl drew so completely over her countenance as most effectually to shade it. She then issued from the chamber, not by the private door and back staircase by which she had entered, but by the other door opening upon the long carpeted passage. Thus apparelled in the shining amber-coloured robe and enveloped in the splendid ermine cloak, with a stray curl or two of her own beautiful jetty hair peeping forth from beneath the hood, Gertrude might well indeed have been taken for the Countess of Curzon. To enact this part was all the more easy, Inasmuch as at that particular period the cloak-hoods were entirely the fashion for ladies, on issuing forth from balls, parties, theatres, etc., and, like the Spanish mantillas or the Turkish veils, they were used so completely Gomicbdooks (E(0)