The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 35: what you’re looking at

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15 ——— _a soft and refreshing fragrance through th wise heated and heavy atmosphere. Beautiful as the four young ladies were, yet the loveliness of one outshone that of her three eompanions. Arrayed in a dress of white bro- caded satin, fitting tight to the bust, but the skirt of which flowed down in heavy waves of silver, she had all the advantage of magnificent apparel to enhance the surprising lustre of her charms. But even had she been attired in the simplest costume, her's was a loveliness alike too splendid and too fascinating not to attract eeneral notice. the proudest womanhood, she blended the state- liness of this imposing stature with the softer traits of delicate, interesting, and enchanting beauty. Her shape, though perfectly symmetri- cal, was characterized by gorgeous developments : but the gracefully voluptuous contours were re- plete with the virgin freshness of youth. Though of the most striking appearance, there seemed to be a halo of innocence and a perfume of chastity about her, calculated to win the heart even more than her splendid loveliness excited the passions. Her haiy was of dark auburn, arranged in bands, —a wreath of artificial leaves, gemmed with sparkling diamonds, setting off the Grecian knot at the back of the well-shaped head. Her arms, bare to the shoulders, were ornamented with bracelets that delineated the roundness of their exquisite modelling ; and their dazzling white- ness, as well as that of her splendid bust, out- shone even her snowy drapery. One delicately eloved hand held an embroidered kerchief: the fingers of the other negligently retained the fan which was more for ornament than for use— as there was nothing artificial, nothing coquettish about this resplendent creature. Her nose was perfectly straight—her counte- nance classically faultless, with the pure Phidian outline that markshigh birth, delineating the short upper lip, the delicately-rounded chin, and the high forehead. Hereyes had thosealmond-shaped orbits which so seldom belong to English beauty, but which are deemed the excelling charm of Italian loveliness; and the pupils, of the deepest, clearest blue, seemed to swim in a field of blaish lustre like that of the finest mother-of-peril. When her lips parted slightly, in the hushed rapture with which she listened to the glorious tide of song rolling through the house, the teeth of whitest ivory were visible between the vermillion lines of that sweet mouth. Her companion has already been described as dazzlingly fair: but upon the cheeks the white of the lily deepened by degrees into a soft and pure carnation, which no art could imitate, but which seemed too beautiful to be real. Natural however it was, and forming not the least bewitching trait of that exceeding beauty which combined so much delicacy and sweetness with such magnificence and grandeur. Such was Lady Florina Staunton, at that de- licious age of nineteen when having burst into the glories of a somewhat early womanhood, so far as related to the rich developments of her form, sbe unconsciously as it were breathed and looked the innocent voluptuousness of nature in full blow: and as the looks of the observer wandered from charm to charm and from beauty to beauty, it would seem as if there were no resting-place for the eye while thus gliding from grace to grace in ndless succession. It dared not settle upon the LO Tall, even to the full height of e other- re THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT, brow, for that was too dazzling ; nor upon the eyes, for the heart wou'd be left in their depths nor upon the lips, for they were too inviting ; nor upon the bosom, for that was too pure. Ina word, it was impossible for the most indifferent observer—even the veriest anchorite—to con- template without emotion that enchanting creature in whom sweetness combined with splen- dour, brilliancy with softness, and magnificence with chastity. : She was unmarried, but engaged to be united to a young nobleman of about her own age— yet little fitted in other respects to be the ac- cepted suitor of so divine a being. This noble- man was Edmund, Lord Saxondale, whom we shall very shortly describe. Although Lady Florina Staunton and her three young friends were seated alone in the box, at the moment when we thus introduce them tc our readers, yet they had not arrived at the Opera unattended by male companions. Lord Harold Staunton, Florind’s brother,—and Lord Saxondale, her suitor,—had been their escort: but thess two young noblemen had stepped out for a few minutes, with the pretext of saying a word to some acquaintances in another box, but really for the purpose of going behind the scenes and bestowing their flippant impertinences upon any of the ballet-girls who might choose to listen to them. Lord Harold Staunton was a fine, tall, handsome young man of three-and-tweuty, but was a confirmed rake and accomplished roue. He and his sister were orphans, the young lady re- siding with an aunt, but Lord Harold occupied lodgings in Jermyn Street. He and Lord Saxon- dale were upon the most intimate terms, and were inseparably together. Not that this bond of union was really cemented by the sacred feeling of friendship, neither of them possessing a heait capable of such a pure and elevated sentiment And yet the tie that held them together, was, at least for the present, binding enough. It was that intimacy which, so often prevailing amongst dissipated young men in high life, rendered them mutually necessary and useful. For on the one hand Lord Harold was poor, and indeed totally dependent on the bounty of his relatives; there- fore it was very convenient for him to be enabled ‘to make use of Lord Saxondale’s purse, which was well filled by the handsome allowance he enjoyed during his minority. On the other hand Lord Saxondale was proud of the friendship of such a fine, dashing, high-spirited fellow as Lord Harold Staunton, who was moreover a eeneral favourite with the ladies, was acquainted with everybody “ worth knowing ” about town, and possessed a most familiar knowledge of all the places of amusement, high or low, that are resorted to by profligate fashionables and dissolute aristocrats. , And now a few words more relative to Edmund, the bearer of the proud title of Saxondale, ere we proceed continuously with our narrative. He was a couple of months past nineteen years of age— short in statue, thin, and slightly made —not exactly ugly, but very far from good-looking, with hair of that suspicious kind of yellowish brown that in certain lights look reddish, and with eyes which only by a complimentary fiction could be pronounced blue, butmightmore properly be described as greenish grey. He had good teeth, which were a considerable saying clause in hi¢ rr rrr rr ee ere ee = CORNIELOOO (C <S com