The Argosy — page 82: what you’re looking at

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

72 ‘ Eve: An Tayi, removed her mask, and throwing back her domino, appeared suddenly in the full blaze of her unrivalled beauty. The unknown started, and turning to the nearest bystander, eagerly enquired her name. ‘“‘ What, sit,” said the person addressed ; ‘‘not know the Countess Millamant? You must be indeed a stranger to the town, not to know the fairest woman in it.” ‘*T have been long abroad,” quoth he, “and have seen too many fairest women to bear any of them long in mind; but this is, I must admit, a splendid beauty.” So saying, he advanced towards the Countess, and with the freedom a mask allows, addressed her in the high-flown language of the day, begging permission to worship as a pilgrim at the shrine of Venus. This she graciously accorded, provided he could bring some flowers of wit and wisdom as an offering to the goddess. ‘“ Madam,” cried the stranger, “beauty like yours might inspire the dullest brain, as well as move the coldest heart, did not awe enchain the tongue.” And so they went on for some time, till both seemed tired of the mimic courtship. They remained the most conspicuous figures among the gay and motley throng, but did not seek one another again. As Lady Millamant went home that night, borne in her gilded, cushioned chair, at the brisk trot of two strapping Irishmen, her lacqueys at once lighting and clearing the way before her, she reflected with many sighs on the emptiness of worldly pleasures. Oh, for a new sensation ; for anything which could produce other feelings than weariness and vexation, gambling. ‘‘I might have been ruined, but luck and my large fortune were against me, and I never lost or won at -cards enough to give me pleasure, or to cause a pang. Love !—ah | that were no doubt emotion—joy, sorrow, hope, and fear in one, but I have never known it, and I never shall. My husband’s age precluded the possibility of any warmer feeling than esteem, and as to the poor creatures who surround me, and feel, or feign, a flame—how to recipro- cate it for any one of them? The pretty fellows are so often rakes, the men of parts are mostly prigs, foolish, foppish, false—and tiresome all. To-night, the travelled air, the noble mien of the Marquis of Riverdale inspired a hope that he might prove more interesting than the rest-— but no; the same nonsense flowed from his lips in the same weary drawl, and Venus and Cupid still did duty for life and love.” Here she arrived at the door of her splendid mansion. The footmen thrust their torches into the extinguishers provided for the purpose, and Lady Millamant stepped from her chair into the lofty hall, and accompanied by her waiting woman, regained the gorgeous suite of apartments she had not long quitted. There she threw herself into an armchair with a portentous yawn. ‘“‘Qh, my lady has the vapours again,” cried Prudence,’“/and to- comicbooks.com i