The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 31: what you’re looking at

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18 THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. . same time drawing forth his remaining weapon, , positions—nor could better models have been se- which he did not however immedistely use. But finding that the assassin, goaded by his desperate lected. Yet there was nothing of the absolute groesness circumstances, was fleeing more quickly than he , of the ordinary houses of infamy, nor of the man- was enabled to follow, he discharged one of the | ner of their inmates, discernible in that room nor bullets of the double-barreled pistol, with the aim {on the part of those four young women. The and intent of wounding the ruffian in the leg. The | furniture was all sumptuous—luxurious too, ball missed; and oft sped Barney. bullet was den} failed. But all udden the river revedJed The second | even to the carrying-out of oriental ideas of such ie after him: this likewise | luxury: but no immodest pictures were sus- as pended to the walls—it might have been a room itself in its qdicksilver brightness to Mr. Redcliffe’s ;in any palatial mansion the respectability of 9 view. Hoe heard fOotsteps behind him—a glance | Which was above the breath of scandal. Besides, thrown over his Shoulder, showed him that the | there was an elegance of taste and an air of re- landiord waa felts#ring—and he exclaimed, “Quick: | finement btesiding over the entire appointments quick! he is if dit poner an But the next thoment the Batker plun the river. His dark forin was sden for bm b struggling atnidat the eddied which Ww thus created; and then it disappear view. A very little lower down, a ro Tees skirted each bank, overhanging the river so far as to shut dut the clear starlight, all that portion of the gtreati for a couple df hundred yards ixité the deepest, blackest gloons. | Redcliffe and tke landlord hurried alo meg F ye eyes td péep through the gJense foliage catch a& glimpse if possible thé waters belieath—but aj! {i vain. Neither heard they any sound like that of a struggling or bat- tling form in those waters ; and amidst that depth of gloom fhey ran to and fro slong the bank within and beyond the range of the cee, ed cliffe being tead¢ &t the first appearancé oF the Burker t6 #Fibe {A and grapple with Kin, But no farth@t tities discovered of the idtdeter. CHAbbern rikxVh - anf PduR srkkns. Tam scetié chaiiges to the adifiptudd’ asffblicn- ment of Madame Angelique in bo on we must again introdace our pegders © ppart- ment which cémmfiticated by means of the mirror-contrived door with the Frenchman’s house adjoining. In this room we shall find four beautiful girls, as on the first occasion when the reader was ini- tiated in the mysteries of this temple of volup- tuousness: but of these present four, two were new importations to the Frenchwoman’s house of Re Of the rodm:; while the sideboard was covored Jith ged into | the choicest wines and the rhast delicate confec- tidnary, as well as a variety of fruite—but tliere Was no eager rashing on tha Birt of the young Yemales to this sideboard} and the tempting re- freshmients remained there comparatively wh- heeded, —thas evidencing that the inmates of the d thus throw | room were accustomed t these &nd all othet luxuries. —— The, as for the attitudes of the girls theri- the bank, , selves, it is true that, as we have already said, they were replete with a voluptaots abandonment, and the charms of those lovely creatures Were most merctriciously displayed. Still, even here there wis & gloss of reffnenient over sil—an elegant potial which showed that thoy had all been ladies nce, in the common acceptance of the term, what- ever name they merited now. The goad-breeding which from their infancy Wis their's, was dis- cernibfe in their manners: theré was nothing iui- roper th their discoursé—hor bad their looks the Rotd hardihood of & gros and vulgar harlotzy. For A peene of iniquity, it Hi: certainly one of the thost Fascinating that could possibly be presented to the view; and weftainly the best composed and the. best appoihted N% Qetails within the limits of the modeti on. But thon Maiame Angeliqué had evet taken $reat pride in what she wai presyinpuous ehougfi fo style the “ respecta- bilit} ” 6f Her establishment; and as she treated the $oung Women like ladies, and enforced the same demeanoar 6& the part of the female do- mestics towards them, they on their own part had a cortain pride in maintaining a suitable decorum of conversation and manners amongst themselves. We will now go a little more into detail. Linda, the German girl, was reclining upon an Ottoman, negligently toying with her fair tresses,—her naked arms and almost completely bared boeom exhibiting fashionable infamy. Armantine, the French girl, , the stainless white of a lovely complexion. There was still there: Linda, the German girl, was like- | wise still an inmate of the same place:—the other two have yet to be described. All four were ex- guisitely dressed in evening toilet: their charms were displayed —we can scarcely say to the utmost advantage, for this implies a consistency with that modesty without which beauty loses half its iuscination : but those lovely contours of bust were exposed in a manner that left bat little more to be revealed. And as if too by that which was originally a study, but which had now become 4 _ habit, the attitudes of those four girls were full of a voluptuous abandonment: so that if they had been sitting to an artist who sought to depict four different personifications of luxurious sensuous- was an unspeakable langour about her entire form ; and her eensuous abandonment of attitude was displayed with al] its most ravishingly dangerous characteristics. Armantine, the French girl—with her dark glossy hair arranged in bands, and she herself perhaps the least meretriciously attired of the whole four—looking, too, more sweetly and pensively lovely, though lovelier as to actual charms she was not, for i¢ were impossible to award the palm to any one in particular,—Arman- tine, we say, was placed in a settee near the Ger- man girl, with whom she principally conversed. In a large cushioned chair, languishiogly re- clined the third of these syrens,—a full-grown beauty, though still quite youthful, and with all ness, they could not possibly have chosen, better | the freshness of youth blooming upon her rich CONIC OOO <S