The Argosy — page 84: what you’re looking at

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

74 Eve: An Idyll, mother of all living. I will be Eve—Eve Woodley. It was my nurse’s name, and seems a. friendly one.” “ Now, then, to provide a dress for your ladyship. I will about it instantly; there are but three days first.” And so Prudence left the Countess to her repose and much more pleasurable thoughts than she enjoyed before ennui was dissipated by a new idea. II. Country. We change the scene to a rural village some five miles from London. Yes, reader, a rural village. Incredible as it may seem, in those days there were rural villages so near the metropolis. Ina pretty cottage room we find two young women. In one we recognize at once our old friend Prudence, looking in her best finery a very good specimen of her class ; but in the other we certainly should fail to discover anyone we have ever seen before. She is a brilliant brunette of some three or four and twenty summers—a smiling, blushing, beaming beauty. Hier face and figure are set off to the best advantage by the most becoming and coquettish of rustic dresses. A chintz gown, all flowered with branching pink roses, is drawn up grace- fully over a quilted rose-coloured petticoat ; and a little gipsy hat, with a tiny cap beneath it, all trimmed with rose-coloured ribbons, surmounts her magnificent black hair, which, raised on a cushion in front, falls in a profusion of glossy curls behind: altogether as pretty a piece of Dresden china as a collector could wish to place on his shelf, or enshrine in his cabinet. ; Who could suppose that in this simple rustic belle he saw a proud court beauty—the magnificent, the capricious, the idolised Countess of Millamant? ‘The difference of hair and complexion are striking enough ; but the whole manner and bearing are changed. With her fine clothes she has laid aside fine airs, and now appears a sweet child of nature, joyous, simple, and true. The fact is, the novelty of her situation and surroundings has imparted new happiness to her mind ; and the aspects of nature, from which she has been so long estranged, give reality to her feelings, and life to her movements. Prudence stood lost in admiration before her. “Surely, surely, my lady, you look more purely handsome than ever you did in your life. No one will have any eyes for the bride, though she’s a buxom lassie, and I pity all the lads who look at you.” Lady Millamant affected to chide, but the consciousness of tran- scendent beauty mantled in her cheek and glanced in her eye, and she walked through the fields to the scene of festivity with a lighter heart and more elastic step than ever she trod the palace floors, of St. James’s. cou comicbooks.com