The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 378: what you’re looking at

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

344 THE COURT OF LONDON played the sculptured delicacy of the feet and ankles and the robust swell of the legs; and on one of the white and beauteously moulded arms, which were bare, hung a basket of artificial flowers. Her hair was of arich dark brown; and as much of the neck, throat, and bosom as met the eye of the beholder was of a dazzling whiteness. Nothing, in fine, could exceed the purity of that polished skin; nothing could be more charming than that snowy complexion which belonged to flesh evidently plump and warm with the vigorous health of youth. Montgomery was so struck by her appearance and so ravished by the graces of her person, that he would have staked his soul upon the belief that her countenance was of a corresponding beauty. So lost in rapture was he that he seemed transfixed to the spot; and when he thought of following her, it was too late; she had disappeared amidst the thickest of the multitude of masques. But it instan- taneously struck him that this must be the lady who had sent the domino and who expected to meet Lord Florimel beneath that disguise; and then, recollecting how keen was the glance which she threw upon him and how precipitate was the immediate retreat, he said to himself, ‘* The adven- ture is a failure. She saw that mine was not the stature of Lord Florimel, and she has ips Soca in mingled rage and disappointment.” But scarcely had he made this reflection, when he was startled with a thrill of ecstatic feeling that passed like an electric shock through his entire frame, on beholding the graceful Flower Girl once more issue from the crowd and ap- proach the spot where he was standing. Her pace was now slowand her step somewhat hesitating; and even from behind that mask which formed so impervious a veil to conceal any confusion which she might have experienced, did she evi- dently send forth agitated glances. But the soft and graceful balancing of her gait, the floating elegance of her form, and the seductive charm of all her movements riveted the attention of Lord Montgomery; and he thought within him- self that if this lady should indeed prove the heroine of the present adventure, no effort that he could possibly make to possess her ought to be spared. For to his memory rushed all the glowing descriptions which Florimel had given him of that night of mystery, love, and voluptuousness, — those (C(O) ANC 6)(0)()