The Mysteries of the Court of London by Pauline Clarendon — page 394: what you’re looking at

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

CHAPTER XL ELEANOR AND THE PRINCE HauF an hour had elapsed since the departure of Lord Marchmont’s afflicted son, and the Countess of Desborough was now once more alone, her husband having left her until dinner-time. . Reclining upon the sofa, Eleanor gave way to the reflec- tions which the main incident of the afternoon had excited within her: we allude to that singular and painful interview which she had with the earl. She revolved in her mind everything he had said to her; she repeated to herself, as nearly as she could recollect, all the glowing words in which he had described his love, the pathetic terms in which he had depicted his remorse, and the noble language which he had uttered in drawing a dis- tinction between an etherial and ‘esthetic sentiment on the one hand, and a gross, sensual passion on the other. But her meditations brought her at length to the termination of the whole scene, when he imprinted chaste kisses on her lips, and when she felt as if lightning circulated in her veins, so powerful were the longings of her desires. Again did those sensations steal upon her; and she blushed, although alone, at the sway which her ardent temperament exercised over her. She was ashamed and humiliated at the: idea of being unable to wrestle against the voluptuous crav- ings that caused her bosom to pant, and her cheeks to glow, and her pulse to thrill. Invoking the aid of her virtue against the promptings of her nature, striving to assist the intel- lectual and spiritual to assert their triumph over the gross and the material, arming herself with all the pride and dignity of her sex to combat against that sex’s mysterious longings, the noble lady’s very soul was rent with conflicting emotions; o91 CONnnicloool|KS (EO)