Agnes, or, Beauty and Pleasure — page 49: what you’re looking at

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

may | | | I \| } { ont Mt \| boyttl PAL a PANU HT tiy WT Wi TH AW ||| % | ~ ih \ ~~ ai HI a axt were nevertheless of a voluptuousness corres- ponding with the character of the mistress of that villa and the Juxurious appointments of the room itself. Yet not for a moment must it be supposed that there was anything gross or indecent in re- spect either to the statues or pictures that might be seen there. Nothing of the sort. Those sta- tues and pictures, if beheld separately and indi- vidually, in any other mansion, casino, or villa, would not have produced the least impression of sensuousness, 80 exquisitely refined was the subject of each; but it was the general effect of the grouping and assembling in one room of all these works of art which was calculated to leave a cer- tain effect upon the mind, ‘The table in that apartment was spread with a dessert of the choicest wines and the most luxurious fruits,—the former being the produce of the richest and the rarest vintages, the latter emanating from the well-kept hothouses in Lucrezia’s own gardens. On one _, No. &8,—AcnEs AGNES; OR, BEAUTY AND PLEASURE, a ——S— = A \ : j . H} } } |! “Vs 4, ‘ f , \ \\ ( uu = " SABA Wy \ aN \ \ — ae Mt a — —— —— — = : 7 Ws <= * — oS =~) : —— ares CON eke ba | 1 T Oe a Be é w \ aitstnnll side of the room there was a purple velvet curtain suspended to a rod by means of massive gilt rings ; and if this curtain was drawn aside, it would dis- close a bed-chamber as exquisitely appointed as the apartment to which we have been alluding. The reader will recollect that on the night of the entertainment at the Mirano mansion in Flo- rence, the Marchioness had said to the Count of Ramorino, Minister of Police: ‘On the third day hence I shall be alone at my villa in the Vale of Arno! alone, do you understand me ?—and thither may you come!” This was the evening of the third day; and Lucrezia di Mirano was therefore awaiting the arrival of the nobleman to whom she had given the appointed. But was the Marchioness happy! was she pre- pared to enjoy the entertainment which was pro- vided,—those fruits and those wines P—or to revel with unalloyed rapture in amatory pleasures? No!—though she was tutoring her countenance to Vox IL Comichboo 41 CSEGO iin