The Mysteries of the Court of London by Pauline Clarendon — page 377: what you’re looking at

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

CHAPTER XXXVIII THE EARL AND COUNTESS OF DESBOROUGH THE scene now shifts to a noble mansion in Berkeley Square. It was about two o’clock in the afternoon of the day following the incidents just related; and in a splendidly furnished apartment, in the lordly dwelling alluded to, a lady was seated, or, rather, reclining in a negligent manner upon a sofa drawn near the fire. She was about twenty-eight years of age, and very hand- some. ‘Her complexion was a clear olive; but, beneath that transparent skin of delicately tinged bistre, glowed a fine carnation, the whole effect being that of softness com- bined with thriving health. Her eyes were black, large and brilliant; and, in the proud lustre of their rays, those magnificent orbs denoted the strength of the lady’s intellectual powers and the energy of her character, at the same time that they bore testimony to the ardour of her temperament and the warmth of her passions. Her hair was dark as night, soft as silk, and shining as the glossy plumage of the raven; and it was parted above a forehead somewhat projecting, but high and spotless. Her eyebrows might have been considered too thick by any one disposed to be hypercritical; and they certainly imparted an air of masculine decision to her countenance. But then, they were so well divided, so nobly arched, so admirably semicircular, and so faultlessly pencilled that they were broader in the middle than at the ends. Her ears were small, well folded, and having a delicate tinge of red; and nothing could exceed the beauty of the well-shaped neck, long, soft, easy, and flexibly swanlike. O14 ECORNIELOOO KS (Elo) m