The Bronze Statue, or, The Virgin's Kiss — page 241: what you’re looking at

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

THE BRONZE STATUE. _ 239 Colmar, this appointment was arranged | smoothness, silken softness, and luxu- previously to the departure of Satanais | riant thickness, formed a covering of from Prague; and it might, therefore, | that beauteous head such as no earthly be substantially true that no correspon- | diadem could equal—no imperial crown dence had passed between the sisters excel ! since that departure. Nevertheless,| A smile played upon the countenarce granting this hypothesis to be true, | which this flood of raven hair euframed wherefore should Gloria have withheld | —that countenance which was made up from him the fact that she expected to| of the most faultless features lighted by meet her sister at the very hostel where | the finest eyes that ever formed the they had halted at the conclusion of | windows of an impassioned woman's their first day’s journey? Ah! could! soul. Great heaven! when we think he not account for Gloria’s silence on|of the splendor of those eyes and look that head 2 was he not aware that Glo- | back at our several attempts to convey ria loved him, and that she was perhaps | an idea of their glory to the comprehen- jealous of her sister! sion of our readers—when we feel our All these thoughts were passing | imagination sinking, dazzled and bewil- slowly through the braia of Sir Ernest | dered, even from the ideal which itself de Colmar; and the bewildering ex- | has created,—-and when we vulnly seek citement which they produced effectu- | for terms adequate to explain our notion ally maintained slumber at a distance. | of the supernal lustre which at times But at length a partial drowsiness be- | shone with an overpowering steadiness gan to steal slowly over him; and his | in those large black orbs, and at other eye-lids were gradually weighing down, | moments vibrated like a star,—when when a sound as of the rustling of fe-| we reflect upon all this and experience male raiment caused him to start sud-|the povervy of the human language to deuly ; and—O joy !—the splendid Sa- | do justice to the theme, it appears to us tanais was before him! ‘as if we had been soaring on eagle pinion, towards the sun, but had fallen back upon the earth, baffled and wing- weary from the adventurous flight. CHAPTER LXI. We have stated, in one of the earliest 'chapters of our tale, that the whole iris of the Daughter of Satan’s eyes was so dark as to leave the pupil undefined— Yes—by the light of the lamp which | or, in other words, that each orb seem- was burning in the room, did Sir Er-| ed one large, black, but glowing pupu. nest de Colmar behold the Daughter of | Such was indeed the case; and so in- Satan approaching his couch. 'tense, so powerful, so supernatural was She was attired in that garb which | the light which shone in these Jamps of she wore when the Austrian first be-| sable glass, that the effect was a splen- came acquainted with her at the ‘Labo- | dor the most overwhelming, and a mag- rite encampment in the grove. The | nificence the most portentous. But then doublet of purple velvet revealed half | the full furce and power of these bura- the bust that’ rose so grandly from the | ing orbs was subdued by the lashes that corsage to which the splendid contours| were of unusual length and thickness ; imparted their well-defined inflections : ‘and when the looks of the mysterious and the lappels of the small sleeves| lady were bent downward, her eyes hung over the upper portions of those | seemed like diamonds shining from be- arms which were modelled with so ad-| neath a covering of biack gauze. mirable a symmetry. Nothing could| On the present occasion the lustre of exceed the beauty of the throat and the | those wondrous orps were even still splendor of the arching neck: no sculp-| more subdued by the ineffable tender- tural perfection could transcend the ex- | ness which filled them, and which was quisite slope of the full plump shoul-/ akin to the smile whose seductive soft- ders and the statuesque shape and out- | ness played upon the bright scarlet lips, THE DARK HOURI. —— ee sy — line of the back. between which the teeth shone like And over those shoulders, and upon) orient pearls. the bosom of rich proportions, flowed [magination can conceive naught more the massive tresses of that hair which|picturesque, nothing more romantic, though of ebon blackness, was neverthe-| than the appearance of this being, whose less lustrous with the sheen of its own leaiment was so. fanciful, and whose natural gloss,—tresses whose velvet. bea ity wus of that dark splendor, which comicbookKs.com