The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 376: what you’re looking at

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

THE TWO NEIGHBOURING HOUSES — 340 the evening the shop is a blaze of gaslight. Sometimes it is Madame Angelique herself who attends upon her lady customers; at other times it is a genteel-looking deputy of a certain age, and who speaks French with the finest Parisian accent, but English with scarcely any describable accent at all. A glass door at the extremity of the spacious shop frequently stands half-open, and reveals some dozen of workwomen in a large room comfortably furnished, and where dresses are made up or caps and bonnets trimmed. A very handsome circular staircase, with bronze balustrades. and carpeted all over, leads up into the show-rooms, which occupy the whole of the first floor. These are sumptuously furnished; lustres, vases, and ormolu clocks embellish the marble mantelpieces, and are reflected in the immense mirrors with their massive gilt frames. Splendid chandeliers, all of the finest cut glass, hang to the ceiling, and these at dusk are lighted with wax candles, which flood the apartments with as brilliant a lustre as that which prevails in a West End saloon when a banquet or ball is given. The carpets in the show-rooms are so thick that the delicate feet of lady visitresses are completely lost in them; the patterns are of the richest description, and match well with the deep crim- son paper of the walls and the general style of the furniture. The costliest as well as the most elegant dresses are to be seen in these apartments, and whichever way a visitress may turn, she finds her form reflected either in a mirror against the wall, or in an immense oval psyche. There are few chairs in these rooms, but numbers of sumptuous otto- mans, covered with velvet, are ranged around. These otto- mans are so many large chests or boxes, the lids of which are made to lift up, cushion and all, and from the mysterious depths of the interior Madame Angelique or the show women produce the newest elegancies of Parisian fashion, — such as bonnets, caps, and materials for ladies’ dresses. The show women themselves are middle-aged persons, but dressed with the utmost taste and neatness, of affable and obliging manners, and bearing the stamp of unquestion- able respectability. Neither in the shop down-stairs, nor in the show-rooms, are any of the females very young or very good-looking; so that if a somewhat particular lady, or an uxorious husband accompanying his wife, pay a visit to Madame Angelique’s establishment, nothing meets the ECORnnicloookKks (GO)