The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 375: what you’re looking at

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

CHAPTER XXVII THE TWO NEIGHBOURING HOUSES In one of the finest streets at the West End of the town — but the name of which we suppress for reasons which will be presently obvious— there are an elegant milliner’s establishment and a handsome tailor’s shop next door to each other. The two houses, which are lofty, spacious, and of imposing appearance, belong to a uniform range, the white fronts and large windows of which, as well as the general style of architecture, produce the impression which is conveyed by the best streets of Paris. Through the immense panes of plate glass in the milliner’s shop may be seen an exquisite and elegant assortment of caps, bonnets, laces, veils, ribbons, silks, etc., and the facia over the shop front indicates that the establishment belongs to Madame Angelique. The same name is repeated, but in miniature letters, on a brass plate on the shop door. The exterior would lead the passer-by to imagine that a respect- able as well as a thriving business 1s carried on by Madame Angelique, and everything seems to be done to render the appearance of the shop as imposing and as attractive as possible. Nowhere are the windows more transparently clean, nowhere the paint fresher, nowhere the brasswork on the lower part of the window and on the door so brilliantly resplendent. If you enter the establishment, the impression produced by the exterior is sustained and confirmed. The shelves are arranged with neat drab-coloured pasteboard boxes, edged with pink, and which are speedily taken down to display their exquisite contents of laces or costly silks, their caps or their gloves, their trimmings or artificial flowers, to the eyes of customers. The mahogany counter is scrupu- lously burnished, the chairs have crimson cushions, and in 344 CORNICIOOKS (E©)