The Young Duchess; or, Memoirs of a Lady of Quality — page 165: what you’re looking at

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though delicately conveyed hint that the future welfare of herself and her child should prove the care of Lady Langport. During this fortnight her ladyship invited no company to the house,—observing that “ she would wait until her friend Ethel became more settled and found herself perfectly at home ere she would ask her to mix in gay society.” Several visitors of distinction however called daily at the Court;"and Ethel found that Miss Crediton was again right when she informed her that all her ladyship’s acquaintances were of a select descrip- tion. We should remark that Ethel had succeeded ' in discovering that Lady Langport was not ac- quainted with the Duke and Duchess of Ardleigh; and thus one very serious cause of apprehension which she had at first entertained was removed from her mind. We must now speak somewhat more in detail of Lady Langport herself. She was in reality an old woman of nearly sixtv, though she contrived, by the most exquisite refinement of a particular art, to give herself the air of a person of little more than half that age. Every species of cos- metic was to be found in the dressing-room. We have spoken of the toilet-table that was placed near the window, and the large bureau of walnut- wood very handsomely carved which stood op- posite. The drawers of the table and the drawers of the bureau were always kept carefully locked. And no wonder!—for when their contents were displayed, they made such an assemblage of jars, bottles, gallipots, phials, boxes, and canisters, that it might seem as if it were purposed to convert that dressing-room into an apothecary’s shop. The labels upon some of those bottles and cases indicated that her ladyship’s cosmetics came from various parts of the world,—from Oriental climes as well as from the cities of the West—from Cairo and Constantinople as well as from Paris and russels. There were jars and large bottles full of per- fumes; for her ladyship took fragrant baths morning and-evening. There were chemical pre- parations to dye the hair a perfect black, without staining the skin; and there were oils and cas- tonnades, pomatums and other unguents, to give it that gloss which should conceal the dye and simulate a natural lustre. There was the Oriental rusma—a strong depilatory- which removed that down from the upper lip and those hairs from the chin which are apt to appear upon the counte- mances of elderly females. There was the Da- Mascus nut which gave to the eye-brows and eye-lashes that lustrous blackness which was con- sistent with a youthful appearance ; there was the Egyptian Kahol, an impalpable powder which when thrown into the eyes themselves gave them a clearness and a brilliancy remaining unimpaired and undimmed for many hours. Then too there was the enamel for the complexion, in addition to an infinite variety of washes, lotions, kalydors, and other cosmetics for the beautifying and purifi- cation of the skin. There was the Parisian car- mine, or rouge, which if laid on with artistic carefulness, would defy the penetration of even the most scrutinising observer to distinguish its artificial existence from the natural tint of the carnation on the cheeks of healthy youthfulness. There likewise was the Moorish preparation for | the lips—a crimson salve, which if used once or TIE ®OUNG DUCHESS; OR, MEMOIRS OB A LADY OF QUALITY. NE Ol ES | “Wr ee re ee we twice a-day (once being generally sufficient) im- parts to them the hue of a vivid scarlet, together with the appearance of a wholesome moisture. We must not forget to observe that there was the Oriental henna, to bestow a delicate pinkish tint upon the nails; and we might mention numerous other cosmetics and appliances if we were to enter more minutely into the mysteries of all the auxi- liaries and artificial aids that were associated with this lady’s toilet. We may proceed to state that in her earlier years she had been eminently beautiful, and her profile was perfect. By the loss of her teeth her mouth would have fallen in: but by the presence of a complete set of false teeth the regularity of the profile was preserved. These teeth were made in Paris: her ladyship possessed half-a-dozen sets, and each set cost about three hundred pounds. Never was the triumph of the succeda- neous art of dentistry more complete than in the present instance. It was impossible to discern that those two rows of ivory were not the natural growth of the wearer's mouth; and when they were shining between the moist vivid scarlet of the lips, there seemed to be all the delicious fresh- ness of youth in that mouth. When Lady Langport represented herself to Ethel Trevor as a skeleton divested of its flesh, or a mummy unwrapped from its bandages, she scarcely exaggerated the hideous truthfulness of her deplorable condition. Indeed this condition was, as we have described it, that of a living skeleton a withered, toothless hag, loathsome to contemplate—every bone visible beneath the skin, which just covered it without the interven- tion of any flesh to yield to the pressure! Yes— wrinkled and withered she was ; but in respect to her face the process of enamelling filled up the lines, indentations, and furrows traced by age; while the application of a pearly powder most ar- tistically laid on, concealed the blueish tint around the eyes. This, together with the dazzling bright- ness imparted by the Kahol to those eyes, brought them out as it were into relief, and prevented them from appearing sunken or haggard. Then, . as for the cheeks, the carnation tint redeemed them from hollowness :—or, at all events, by means of the aids which we have just described, those eyes looked less sunken and those cheeks less hol- low than they actually were. Lady Langport’s hands were, as we have already said, thin and lank,—though by means of the same cosmetics and auxiliaries that were used for the face, the withered, wrinkled appearance of old age in respect to those hands was diminished if not altogether changed. She however usually wore gloves: but when it was seen how dazzlingly fair were those hands, and of what a pellucid pinkness the almond-shaped nails appeared to be, the eye of the observer speedily ceased to dwell upon the leanness and thinness that might for a moment have attracted him. Lady Langport’s feet were excessively high-arched, long, and very narrow; so that it was easy to give to them an admirable shapeliness. By the very configuration of those feet in respect to the height of the instep and its arching gracefulness, her steps were elastic. Though reduced to a mere skeleton she was not physically weak; and thus she was perfectly up- | right in figur e—she had tutored herself to main- ' tain-.a statuesque elegance of deportment—and she COMO oO |