The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 311: what you’re looking at

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296 bust and the arms bare almost to the shoulders. She had arranged her hair in mussive bands, with a few tresses hanging down behind from the knot in which its chief luxuriance was gathered at the back of the well-shaped head; and a camelia set off its glossy darkness with a striking effect. The aim upon which she was bent imparted a height- ‘enced animation to her countenance; and her eyes shone with even more than their wonted fires. She had resolved to conquer—and that speedily too; and she was already flushed as it were with the foretaste of anticipated triumph. Now, as the Hon. Miss Farefield was decidedly the female star of the assemblage at the Denisons’, and as Mr. Hawkshaw was the most important in- dividual amongst the younger portion of the male euests, it was quite natural that he should give his arm to Juliana to escort her from the drawing-room to the dining-room; and he of course sat next to her at table. She put forth all the powers of her conversation to charm him; and this she did without the slightest be- trayal of studied effort. Well knowing what his favourite topics were, she skilfully, but in a manner that seemed perfectly natural, turned the discourse thercon. She seemed to enter into the spirit of the exhilarating sports of the field—gave him to understand that she wished she lived altogether in the country—and was even astonished at the dex- terity with which she acquitted herself when speak- ing of racing, and hunting, and steeple-chasing. Until this evening those topics were Juliana’s utter aversion: she had fancied that every sporting character smelt of the stables, and was totally unfit for the roseate light and perfumed atmosphere of drawing-rooms. But now she appeared to enter with enthusiasm into all that pertained to the sporting world; and skilfully catching hints from the remarks which Mr. Hawkshaw himself made, she expanded them into lengthened disquisitions of her own. Her companion was evidently charmed. The more she talked, the deeper became his interest in her conversation; and presently he found himself gazing upon her with a rapture that he had never known in woman’s presence before. New feelings appeared to be taking life in his heart; and as he contemplated her face and her form, the conviction gradually grew upon him that he had never beheld anything so beautiful as those features or so superbly symmetrical as that shape. When he looked at her aquiline profile he fancied that she appeared thus to the greatest advantage: but when she bent her looks upon him and he gazed on her full face, catch- ing all the glorious power of her eyes, he thought that she was still more beautiful thus. The dinner passed over—the ladies withdrew to the drawing-room—and the gentlemen remained to sit a little longer over their wine. For the first time in his life Mr. Hawkshaw neither appeared to enjoy the wine nor to mingle in the discourse that was — taking place around him. His thoughts were all concentrated on the splendid creature who had charmed him during the hour of dinner, and who only so recently left his side. It seemed to him as if some new and hitherto unknown influence had been shed upon him: he longed for the summons to the drawing-room to arrive that he might once more have an opportunity of beholding and conversing a ae ET TT THE MYSTERIES OF THE COUR?, with Miss Farefield: he wondered that when he had met her in society on the former occasions that she was in Lincolnshire, he had taken no more notice of her than of the other ladies of his ac- quaintance; and he could not help asking him- self what all these feelings meant, and whether they constituted that love of which he had read in novels and of which he had so frequently heard persons speak? Mr. Denison and the other gentle- men at the table noticed his abstracted mood; and after several vain endeavours to rally him into his wonted joviality, they began dropping merry and good-natured hints to ‘the effect that he must have lost his heart. Then, the confusion which he felt, and the gush of strange emotions that seemed to pour through his breast, sending a thrill along every fibre and through every vein, made him sus- pect that they had really touched upon the right chord. | At length the summons to coffee arrived; and by one ot those sudden inconsistencies, or rather eccen- tricities, which frequently mark the human cha- racter, Mr. Hawkshaw resolved that he would not throw himself in the way of Juliana again, lest his friends and acquaintances should in reality have good reason to say that he was smitten with her. Perhaps too he wished to put his feelings to the test: and perhaps also, he was afraid of being ac- tually ensnared into those matrimonial aspirations against which he had hitherto maintained his heart in such periect inaccessibility. Therefore, on enter- ing the drawing-room, which was spacious, and where by this time most of the guests who were invited to the ball (having arrived- since dinner) were assembled, Mr. Hawkshaw lounged about amongst them, endeavouring to assume an easy un- constrained air: but as he stood conversing first with one acquaintance, then with another, he caught himself falling into fits of abstraction, and his eyes unconsciously wandering to where the Hon. Miss Farefield was seated amongst some ladies in another part of the room. On her side, she perfectly well comprehended what was passing in Mr. Hawkshaw’s mind. With- out appearing to observe him, she nevertheless kept her eyes almost constantly fixed upon him from beneath the shade of the long dark fringes. She noticed his moods of abstraction—she beheld his looks wandering towards her—and she hkewise per- ceived that every time he lounged about, he halted nearer and nearer to where she was seated. Thus she had no difficulty in penetrating the kind of struggle that was going on within him; and with a secret glow of triumph she felt the conviction that he was ensnared. Presently the band, which had been procured from Lincoln to attend upon the occasion, struck up its swelling harmony as a signal for the dancing to commence. A young nobleman, of high rank but wretchedly affected manners, advanced and re- quested the honour of Juliana’s hand for the first quadrille: but well aware that Mr. Hawkshaw did not dance, she was about to refuse on the plea of headache—when it suddenly occurred to her that in the mazes of the dance she would be afforded an opportunity of displaying her fine form to its ut- most advantage. Besides, if Hawkshaw were really smitten—as she had no doubt he was—it would pique his jealousy to behold her the companion o' EEE ae ECORNICLOO (C S (€©)