The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 380: what you’re looking at

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

THE TWO NEIGHBOURING HOUSES 349 into the milliner’s; or if there be any such reader so obtuse of intellect as not to comprehend this fact, we now beg to announce it. Yes, his Grace of Marchmont was in one of the higher rooms of Madame Angelique’s abode. It was splendidly furnished, with mirrors, draperies, pictures, and statues. But these were the least attractions there, in com- parison with four lovely beings in female shape, who seemed to be the presiding deities of this luxurious apartment. One had opened the mysterious door, as already stated, to give the duke admission. She was a fine, well-grown, and exceedingly handsome young woman, of about two and twenty. Her glossy brown hair was arranged in bands, with an artificial flower like a camellia on one side of the head. Her dress, of fawn-coloured satin, was made very: low in the body, revealing a gorgeous bust; the richest lace trimmed the upper part of the corsage, both back and front, and rib- bons depended from the shoulders. Her arms were bare, and splendid arms they were, —a trifle too robust perhaps for statue-like symmetry, but plump, well rounded, and dazzlingly white. This young woman was a native of England, and she was known to the Duke of Marchmont, as well as perhaps to others, by the Christian name of Lettice, this being short for Letitia. The second divinity of the place whom we must notice was a French girl, named Armantine, and who was of ravish- ing loveliness. Her features were delicately formed and faultlessly regular. Her hair, a shade darker than the Eng- lish girl’s, was arranged in a sort of Greek knot, and it shone with a rich gloss, all its own. She too was elegantly apparelled, — the light satin dress setting off the slender symmetry of her shape, and revealing much of the well- formed bust, which was less exuberant and more statuesque than the voluptuous contours of Miss Lettice. The third female occupant of the room was a German girl, with masses of rich auburn hair clustering down upon her brilliantly white neck and shoulders. She too was emi- nently beautiful, but with a sensuously outlined profile, and large, languishing blue eyes. Her figure combined slenderness of shape with rich development of contours. Of the four she alone had not her arms bare; not that she had any reason to conceal them on account of defective modelling: it was simply a matter of taste that she wore ¢om (@) IDOOkKsS (E(@)