The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 252: what you’re looking at

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

INDORA 221 proud soul of Clement Redcliffe, when enjoying the freedom of the whole world’s range, might look upon me with a different regard from that with which it was wont to survey me in the narrow circuit of my father’s capital. Sagoonah, think you that this hope will be disappointed? ” ‘“‘ Princess,’’ responded the Hindu dependent, ‘‘ I am but little accustomed to read the human heart, and the heart of an Englishman appears to me as inscrutable as the mys- teries of some forbidden book.”’ “True! You cannot judge it,’’ observed the princess, in a low, musing tone. ‘‘ And moreover, you have never loved, Sagoonah. No, you have never loved: you know not what love is. You have been attached to me from your childhood, and if you had experienced the slightest scin- tillation of that passion which I feel, you would have told me, or I should have discovered it. Is it not so, Sagoonah? ”’ and the princess raised her large, lustrous eyes, dark as those of the gazelle, toward the countenance of her de- pendent. “It is so, lady,’’ responded Sagoonah, in a low but firm voice. ““T marvel that you never loved,’’ proceeded Indora, still in that same musing manner as before. ‘‘ It appears to me that a heart susceptible of love must be invariably asso- ciated with beauty of the person; it seems as if beauty, being formed to create love, ought to prove susceptible of the fire which it kindles. And you, my faithful Sagoonah, possess charms superior to any of your sex or caste, in your own native land. Yes, you are handsome — very hand- some,’ and now the eyes of the princess wandered slowly, and with a certain degree of listless abstraction, over the bayadere-like form of her attendant. Sagoonah stood perfectly motionless, her figure upright as a dart, her head somewhat inclined forward, like a flower upon its stalk, and yet in that uprightness there was neither ungraceful stiffness nor inelegant rigidity. She seemed to feel that, as a slave, she was bound to submit with all becoming respect to that survey on the part of her mistress. Had an observer been present, he could not have avoided thinking to himself that they were two of the most splendid specimens of Oriental beauty, of distinct shades of com- plexion. EGOMIIGIOOKS (GO)