The Works of George W. M. Reynolds — page 324: what you’re looking at

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

CHAPTER XXVII THE SISTERS In the meantime a scene of some interest was passing at Saxondale House. Juliana and Constance were seated together in an apartment specially devoted to their own use, and where they were wont to practise their music, skim the fashionable novels of the day, and receive their lessons in painting from William Deveril. We have already stated that Juliana was a perfect likeness of her mother, possessing the same aquiline profile, with its aristocratic haughtiness of expression subdued not so much by a natural feminine softness as by a melting sensu- ousness of look. A keen observer, well skilled in the reading of the human physiognomy, could not have failed to observe that Juliana was a young woman of strong passions, — the evidence of which might be read in her eyes, the dewy moisture of her lips, and the voluptuous contours of her form. Being in her twenty-third year, the reader may perhaps wonder — especially as she was so exceedingly handsome — that she remained unmarried. Assuredly it was through no fault of her own, nor that of her mother, for Lady Saxon- dale, without actually condescending to any of those vulgar manoeuvres to which match-making parents have recourse to secure husbands for their daughters, had done her best to “ get off,’ as the term is; both Juliana and Constance. Juliana too had endeavoured to win more than one heart, but somehow or another she had never received an offer which was deemed eligible enough to be accepted. Perhaps it was that she had no fortune of her own; or perhaps, despite her fine person, she was not one of those really lovable beings by whom a man was likely to be captivated. Certain it is that at this age when girlhood had completely 307 (FO) CONnNIELDOOKS