The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 216: what you’re looking at

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

THE EASTERN LADY 189 An apartment on the first floor, at the back of the drawing- room, and therefore looking on the garden in the rear, was fitted up in the most exquisite style. This style was alto- gether Oriental, for, instead of chairs, there was a continuous range of ottomans against the walls, interrupted only by the doorway in one direction and by the casement in another. The Venetian blinds were closed outside that casement, and within, heavy folds of the richest crimson drapery kept out the slightest current of air. A lamp, suspended to the ceiling, shed a soft roseate light through the transparent medium of a pink-tinted globe of glass. The atmosphere was warm and perfumed, but neither heated nor sickly. It was just such a warmth as was grateful on an October evening, and such a perfume as was refreshing, for it exhaled from flowers artistically arranged in costly vases. Some of those flowers were of that rare exotic kind which are seldom seen in this country, and then only in the conserva- tories of wealthy mansions. The mantelpiece was covered with superb ornaments, all of an Oriental kind; the central table displayed the most curious as well as the most costly luxuries of Eastern art. But who was the occupant of this apartment at once so sumptuous and so elegant? Whose form was it that sat half-reclined upon the crimson draperies of an ottoman? A female, the reader may be assured, for nought save feminine taste could preside over the appointments of that charming retreat. She was a lady of about thirty years of age, and though the duskiness of her complexion indicated her Oriental origin, yet the warm, languid clime to which she belonged had not in any way marred or impaired the daz- zling grandeur of her beauty. Her costume was of extraor- dinary richness, and well fitted for the place in which we find her. It was in some respects a fanciful dress, for those who are best acquainted with the apparel of different nations could scarcely ascribe it to any one in particular. The taste of the wearer had evidently studied to blend all those details of costume which, belonging to different parts of the East, were most elegant and becoming in such combination. And that same taste, too, had so exquisitely presided over these arrangements that there was nothing incongruous in the general effect. | A sort of caftan, of purple velvet, jewelled and em- CORNICLIOOKS (C(O)