The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 268: what you’re looking at

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

238 THE COURT OF LONDON think within himself how great was the pity if no tender kisses were ever more to be gathered there. The manners of the Marchioness of Bellenden were not too elegant to be cordial, not too fashionably refined to be win- ning. Elegant and refined they assuredly were, but not with that glacial formality, chilling reserve, and ceremonial haughtiness which seems to calculate the distance between individuals with a view to decide what amount of civility may be vouchsafed or how much cold constraint is to be assumed. No, Lady Bellenden knew full well how to mani- fest that graceful condescension which made her inferiors feel at their ease in her presence; while to her equals she ex- hibited an affability and amiability which, though always, as it were, showing through a certain settled melancholy alike of expression and manner, nevertheless endeared her to all her friends and acquaintances. Such was the Marchioness of Bellenden, the lady to whose care George Woodfall introduced the orphan Rose Foster. And, as he had foretold, cordial, most cordial was the wel- come which the much-persecuted girl experienced at the hands of the benevolent lady. An elegant chamber was assigned to Rose on the southern side of the priory; and when she awoke on the following morning a milliner with a quantity of ready-made apparel was introduced into her presence. New and excellent raiment for the orphan’s immediate. use was thus provided; and the dressmaker had the orders of the marchioness to take Miss Foster’s com- mands for the completion of everything that was necessary for her toilet. In the afternoon George Woodfall called at the priory to pay his respects to the marchioness and inquire concerning the health of Rose, and her ladyship insisted that he should stay to dinner. Thus at the time that poor Caroline Walters was undergoing the examination before the Lambeth magis- trate, Rose Foster was conversing with the marchioness and the young artist in one of the elegantly furnished parlours of Bellenden Priory. Gomme ooo