The Works of George W. M. Reynolds — page 61: what you’re looking at

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

44 THE COURT OF LONDON systems inflicted upon a community calling itself civi- lized. But to our tale. About the same time that the events of the last few chapters were occurring on the shores of Lake Leman, the following scene took place at the mansion of Lord and Lady Florimel in Piccadilly. It was three o’clock in the afternoon, and in the splendid drawing-room of that palatial residence sat Florence Eaton and Valentine Malvern. The young lady was engaged in some elegant fancy work, while the young gentleman was conversing with her, not in the frivolous style so common in aristocratic circles, nor upon the vanities, gaieties, and dissipations of the great metropolis. They were not discussing the attractions of the opera, nor the merits of the newest piece produced at Covent Garden, nor the last brilliant party given by some splendid duchess, nor the tittle-tattle, scandal, and flying rumours at that particular period constituting the “nine days’ wonder ”’ of the fashionable world. But that maiden so lovely and that youth so handsome were conversing on subjects which, if not gay, were at all events not too grave, and if far from frivolous and light, were equally distant from being ponderous and dull. For the topics of their discourse were poetry, music, painting, and sculpture, and in exchanging their remarks thereon they showed no affected love for something which they could not understand, but a pure taste and a sound judgment in the appreciation of all the beauties of those sublime arts. Upwards of four months had elapsed since Valentine Malvern, when thrown from his horse in Hyde Park, was conveyed in an unconscious state to Florimel House in Piccadilly. The physicians who were summoned at the time ordered that he should be kept as tranquil as possible, lest concussion of the brain might supervene. Thereupon the hospitality of Lord Florimel, exercised with the due assent of his amiable Pauline, was so generously manitested toward the invalid that for upwards of a month did he remain beneath that roof. His recovery, indeed, was some- what slow, as he had received a very severe shock from the accident, nor would Lord Florimel hear of his new iriend leaving Piccadilly and returning to Hanover Square until the medical attendant pronounced him convalescent. CORNICLIOOKS (E(0)