The Works of George W. M. Reynolds — page 66: what you’re looking at

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

THE OPERA BOX 49 resume the thread of our narrative. To proceed, then, we must state that after an absence of three-quarters of an hour from the box where Lady Florina and her three young friends were seated, the two noblemen returned thither, their counte- nances somewhat flushed and their breath having a vinous odour, for they had been drinking champagne (which young Saxondale had paid for) behind the scenes. A close ob- server might have noticed that it was with something very much like a look of aversion and a sort of inward shrinking, as if of downright loathing and disgust, that the beauteous Florina met the half-insolent, half-familiar gaze of her accepted suitor when he thus reéntered the box in company with her brother. But his own egregious vanity would not - permit him rightly to interpret this transient evidence of emotion on her part, even if he had perceived it; for he actually imagined that the beauteous girl was over head and ears in love with him. “ Well, Flo, did you miss us?” asked her brother, Lord Harold. ‘‘ Did you think we were lost? ”’ “To be sure! Your sister was dying with impatience till we came back,” interjected Edmund, before the young lady had time to make any answer. ‘“ Now, tell me the truth, Florina,” he said, bending down over the back of the chair, “weren't you watching the door in anxious expectation that it would open every minute? ”’ “| certainly thought that your lordship and Harold left us rather too long by ourselves,’’ answered Florina, in a soft, flutelike voice. ‘‘ But while you were absent, Grisi has given us some splendid outpourings of melody, and — ”’ But she stopped short, for she was about to add that having been so much engrossed with the music and the singing, she had not particularly missed either her brother or her in- tended husband. Lord Saxondale turned to address a few observations to the other three young ladies, and Harold, bending down till his lips nearly touched his sister’s ear, whispered hurriedly and angrily, “‘ You should not treat Saxondale with such coldness. Hitherto his vanity has prevented him from seeing it, but he must observe it in time if it continues; and then — ”’ “ And then — what?” asked Florina, turning partially around and fixing her eyes steadily upon her brother’s countenance. COnnicooolkKks (FO)