The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 43: what you’re looking at

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

THE BILLS OF EXCHANGE 27 the scathing powers of lightning. A moment afterward, and she was gone. Throughout this scene the bill-broker had remained a hidden but profoundly interested observer in the cabinet with the glass door. It was the first time he had ever seen the Countess of Curzon; and he was astonished as well as enraptured at the peculiar style of her loveliness. Her beauty appeared to him of the Mauritanian species which characterized the Moorish women who once made Spain their home, and the memory of whose charms has been preserved in many a tradition, legend, and romance. On throwing off the cloak which enveloped her entire person, Editha had appeared in a dark velvet dress, which seemed most befitting her complexion; and the admirable fashion of the costume set off the sculptural symmetry of her shape to its utmost advantage. Then the power of her eyes, so luminous in their in- tense darkness, and so splendid with their long jetty lashes, the rich hue of the flush that so often mantled on her cheeks during the conversation with her now discarded paramour, the vivid red of those lips that were so deli- cious in their moist fulness and that seemed to breathe sweets even when the words that passed through them were sharp with scorn, the quick heavings of that bosom which the low-bodied dress left more than half-exposed, the grace, the elegance, and the dignity of her attitudes, all adapting themselves to the style of the discourse she was hearing or giving utterance to at the time, — in a word, every charm and every attraction that invested or surrounded her pro- duced a powerful effect upon Emmerson. She departed in anger, as we have already described; and then the bill-broker, unlocking the door, came forth from the place of his concealment. ‘“Now, Emmerson, are you satisfied?” said Malpas, still trembling beneath the influence of that withering, blighting, scathing look which Editha had last thrown upon him. ‘“She is the only woman I ever saw whose love is worth dying for,’ responded the bill-broker. Then, gazing upon Malpas with somewhat of that scorn and contempt which he had caught, as it were by transfusion from the noble Jady who had just taken her departure, he said, ‘‘ How feel (COMMUC 0)(0)(0) SS (EO) am