In Sight of St. Paul's — page 12: what you’re looking at

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

IN SIGHT OF ST. PAUL'S CHAPTER I. A DANGEROUS BEAUTY. Raymond street, a broad highway of no particular length, leading from the Thames Embankment, is, as a rule, aremarkably quiet thoroughfare, with its large, handsome, old-fashioned mansions and its gen- eral air of dignified prosperity. But, on a certain balmy night in June, notso many years ago, it presented a scene of unwonted life and gayety. Elegantly appointed equipages, filled with gentlemen in correct evening dress, and ladies eowned in the latest decoctions of London and. Paris milliners, rolled over its pavements to deposit their inmates before the doors of the finest house in the street, a house which, with its awnings and steps car- peted with scarlet cloth, showed that it was the scene of some social entertainment of no small importance. The rich Mr. Chichester, who had recently taken Eomie .OOKS