The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 160: what you’re looking at

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

ZOE 137 of flowers, and unless her time, when she was alone, could be occupied with music, with her pencil, her embroidery, or her favourite authors. The simply bound books, there- fore, had accompanied her from the well-chosen little library in her own boudoir, because not for a single instant could she bear to bend over the nauseating trash which filled the gorgeously bound annuals which lay upon the tables. Miss Armytage was about twenty years of age. Her countenance was an oval of the most faultless outline; she was not merely beautiful, but interesting, and of that sweet, lovable appearance which, apart from mere beauty, renders a young woman so exquisitely charming. Her features were regular and delicately formed: her nose was perfectly straight; her mouth was small, — the lips classically cut, and of scarlet brightness. Her eyes were large and of a clear limpid blue, fringed with dark lashes, and surmounted by brows well separated and finely arched, so that the expres- sion of her countenance was full of frankness and ingenuous innocence. Those lashes and those brows were many shades darker than her hair, which was of a rich light brown, soft and silky, and with so lustrous a gloss upon it that if worn in bands and left somewhat wavy, it seemed golden where the light fell upon it, and dark where the shades remained. But if worn in ringlets, then did a perfect shower of that light brown hair fall in natural curls on either side of this lovely countenance, descending upon well-formed shoulders, and upon a neck pure and stainless as alabaster. There was something inexpressibly sweet in her smile. The purity of her thoughts made her countenance seem the face of an angel, and as her complexion was delicately fair, though with the roseate tint of health upon the cheeks, this trans- parent purity of the skin added to the angelic style of her loveliness. Though not tall, — indeed not above the middle height of woman, — her figure nevertheless appeared of a loftier stature on account of its admirable symmetry, its lithe elas- ticity, and its flowing roundness of contour and of limb. Every movement was characterized by an unstudied grace; every gesture was replete with an elegance allitsown. How- ever plebeian her parentage might have been, there were nevertheless all the best unbought graces of a natural aris- tocracy about this beautiful and charming creature. EORNICLIOOKS (EO)