The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 267: what you’re looking at

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

BELLENDEN PRIORY 237 Wealthy, handsome, highly accomplished, and of a reputa- tion unsullied by even the slightest breath of scandal, the Marchioness of Bellenden had, as a matter of course, received many offers of marriage during her long widowhood; but she had refused them each and all, though some were of a nature so eligible as to have appeared beyond the possi- bility of experiencing a negative. And on those occasions, when thus pressed for a decision in so delicate and import- ant a matter as an invitation to change her condition once more, she would glance significantly but not hypocritically down at her mourning garb, and observe with a singular and almost martyrized air of resolution that she had deter- mined to carry those weeds throughout her earthly career, unto the threshold of the grave itself. In personal appearance the Marchioness of Bellenden was a woman who could not fail to create a feeling of interest even in the mind of the most callous observer of the female sex. She was tall, well-formed, slightly inclining to embon- point, but characterized by so much elegance and grace that every attitude and every movement had its own pecul- lar charm. Her bust was of full and voluptuous propor- tions, the slope of her shoulders was admirable, and her arms, though robust, were exquisitely symmetrical and dazzlingly white. But the high corsage and the long sleeves veiled the superb neck and the polished arms; yet the beauty of the throat and the faultless formation of the snowy hands, aided also by the shape which the black dress took from the rich contours of the bosom, allowed ample scope for the exercise of delicious imaginings in respect to the charms thus modestly concealed. The countenance of the Marchioness of Bellenden was very handsome, and its beauty was so well preserved that, despite even of the widow’s weeds which certainly have a tendency to mar the appearance of youthfulness, she did not seem to be more than thirty. Her eyes were large and of a soft liquid blue; her hair, which she wore in bands and did not permit the close fitting cap altogether to conceal, was of a dark chestnut, not particularly luxuriant, but with a gloss shining on its surface as the lustre of a lamp displays the richness of velvet; her teeth were white as ivory and fault- lessly even; and there was a vermilion freshnesss upon the lips which must inevitably have made the admirer of the sex —— (Gr ®) AG 6)(0)(©) Sa!