The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 139: what you’re looking at

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

18 THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. variety of cesupation and grade, you might single | at which she stopped short, and beyond which is out Mary-Anne as the abigail of aristocratic mis- | would be very difficult to induce her to take a false tresses. Nor was this all. A close observer could | step. not fail to perceive that she wae a confidential maid | Sach wes the lady’s-maid who possessed the agn- young ladies whom she | fidence of her two young mistresses eyes, which she could | presence of any other person who might interrapt use with no small effect when she chose, but all the | the meeting of the lovers in the of which were so tutored and distiplined as} We should observe that of eli the splendid fringes. Her nose was straight—her end pouting, the lips being of a rich moisture: they were display her fine white teeth when any aristocratic | of that instrument were heard emanating from young exquisite, visiting at the mansion, paid her | amidst the evergreens at the extremity of the en- complimen the stairs ;—but if any improper overtures were; trate thither. A side-door, of which it was easy for Mary-Anne to obtain the key, was wont to afford them {nm a manner that would most likely silence | admission to the Marquis of Villebelle: but on for ever him who insulted her with euch proposals. | three or four occasions when a half-hour’s interview We do not know that it can be exactly said she was | was to be stolen after dusk, and when the key was virtuous from principle: indeed it would be wrong | not immediately fortheoming, the intrepid French- to make any euch assertion. Bat she was @ saving | man had not hesitated to scale the boundary-wall. and prudent young woman in money-matters—had | Let us now introduce this foreign nobleman te thorough respectable notions with regard to her! our readers. He was about twenty-eight yeare of character—and looked forward to a good marriage | age—remarkably handsome—with a somewhat pen- with some deserving and eligible person in her own | sive and even metancholy expression of countenance. sphere of life. Thus, though Mary-Anne could | Tall and well formed, his figure combined dignity smile in a bywe-intrigue carried on | and elegance. He had dark hair, clustering in by othere—and deliver a billet-donz with all the | natural waves above a forchead of noble height. slynees and discretion imaginable,—and though on | His eyes were large and black, and with « pecaliar occasions she could not merely flirt but even romp | softness of look. There was a very pleasing ex. with the domestics in the scrvants’ hall, on a! pression about his lips; antl his teeth were white Christmas or New Ycar’s eve,—yet there was a line | and faultlessly even. He spoke the Enclish lan- GOnMGOOOKS o= (CO