The Argosy — page 81: what you’re looking at

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

Eve: An Idyll. 71 colours, interspersed with threads of gold, was trimmed with the finest lace and knots of ribbon mixed with strings of pearls. All spread out over panniers of enormous size, displayed to advantage the beauty of the material and the stately grace of the wearer: while her pow- dered hair, raised on cushions nearly two feet above her head, blazed with diamonds, and derived additional grandeur from a plume of feathers, which, like a palm-tree on the top of a high hill, surmounted the whole. And it must be admitted that, exaggerated and artificial as was the dress, the effect of the whole figure was wondrous beautiful. The clear whiteness of the hair and powdered skin, and of the white ground of the dress, brought out her dark eyes and brows—the only dark objects about her, except an “assassin” near her mouth—with a lustre which was absolutely dazzling. And when her beautiful features lost for a moment their usual expression of indolent languor in the triumph of conscious beauty, as she gazed at her full-length reflection in the glass, none who saw her could dispute her claim to reigna goddess in the hearts of men. When she arrived at the ball it was already crowded. A black velvet mask covered her features, and a domino eclipsed the splendour of her dress ; but to those well acquainted with her, the carriage of her head, and the grace of her movements, revealed the divinity within, and she was soon surrounded by an admiring throng, Though all were masked, most of them she recognised in her turn by some trick of gesture or peculiarity of voice ; but, as she gazed around, her attentioh was arrested by the entrance of a person she felt sure she had never met before. Yet he seemed one well worth the knowing. Like the rest a mask concealed his face, but the domino displaced, and hanging on his arm, displayed in full the supreme elegance of his tall figure, and the unparalleled magnificence of his dress. The extended skirts of his blue velvet coat set off the richness. of the silver embroidery ; his buttons and buckles, of diamonds of the finest water, eclipsed all the surrounding paste! his sword-hilt blazed with gems, and the lace of his cravat and ruffles might have moved the envy of the proudest belle. He wore his own hair, powdered, then rather unusual ; indeed, all about him was somewhat singular, though . Certainly singularly elegant. His appearance caused a flutter of excitement, and the whisper ‘Who is he?” went round the circle. The men criticized, the women admired. At last one better informed than the rest, proclaimed him to be the young Marquis of Riverdale, son of the Duke of Broadlands, who had just returned from long travel in France and Italy: and a certain foreign air, and the fact that he was new to the world, seemed to justify the assertion. Our Countess, as he approached, moved perhaps by a-desire that - the admiration she felt should be reciprocal, under pretence of: cheat, comicbooks.com