Penny Blood Serial Fiction — page 91: what you’re looking at

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

74 THE COURT OF LONDON upon his handsome person, the easy elegance of his address, the nobility of his air, his melodious yet manly voice, the irresistible sweetness of his smile, and the fascinating style of his conversation. Then she remembered that he had declared himself to be unmarried, and an involuntary sigh stole upward from her bosom. She felt the blood rushing to her cheeks and her very ears tingling with the blushful clow; and though she started for a moment and was even vexed with herself for having allowed the sigh to follow the reminiscence, yet at the next instant she plunged again into « delicious reverie, wherein her girlish bashfulness gave way to a yielding softness and a dreamy voluptuousness. Suddenly a loud knock at the front door startled Pauline from her book and Octavia from her meditations; and the latter awoke to what appeared to be a guilty consciousness of having made him who was now about to enter the hero of her thoughts. Again did the blood rush to her cheeks; and the warm glow, not having had time to ebb away ere Mr. Harley was ushered into the room, overspread her lovely countenance once more with a renewed suffusion. Mr. Harley pressed Pauline’s hand with a friendly cor- diality; but so enraptured was he by the blushing and vo- luptuous charms of Octavia, that he carried her hand hastily to his lips and imprinted upon it a fervent kiss. So sudden was this movement that Octavia had not time to resist, even if she had possessed the inclination; and so rapidly was it accomplished that Pauline did not observe it. A tide of happiness appeared to rush in to the elder sister’s soul; it seemed to her as if she had unexpectedly and all in a mo- ment experienced the realization of a delicious dream, and indescribable sensations of bliss came over her like a warm glow, as if she had just quaffed a goblet of champagne. Mr. Harley was a thorough man of the world, and deeply versed in all the mysteries and intricacies of the human heart. But especially was he an able anatomist of the female mind, which he could dissect and comprehend in an instant. The emotions experienced by Octavia were not lost upon him; he perceived and deciphered them almost as soon as they had sprung into existence, and he saw in a moment that he was not indifferent to her. She had not withdrawn her hand, she had uttered no ejaculation when he pressed it to his lips, nor had she resented his conduct. The blush that GOmichdooks (E(0)