Penny Blood Serial Fiction — page 293: what you’re looking at

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

CHAPTER XXIV WILLIAM AND ANGELA It was on the evening of the day following the incidents recorded in the previous chapter, that, between eight and nine o’clock, William Deveril and his sister Angela were seated together in the ground floor parlour of their beautiful little villa near the Regent’s Park. The weather was warm, even to sultriness, for there was not the slightest breeze to dispel the heat which the sun of a glowing August day had left behind after sinking into its western home. The curtains had within a few minutes been drawn over the win- dow, but the casement itself was‘open. A lamp burned on the table, and its light shone upon the handsome counte- nance of the young artist, and on the enchanting features of his sister, as they conversed together in a cheerful strain. An angel in loveliness as well as in name, that beauteous creature might well be described as the most ravishing em- bodiment of female charms ever beheld by mortal eyes. We delineated her portrait in one of the earliest chapters of this narrative, when she appeared upon the stage of the opera; we described her when she burst upon the delighted vision of the thousands gathered there to pour forth their enthusiastic plaudits, which were as much a tribute to her matchless beauty as to her proficiency in the dance. We beheld her then, expressing and personifying the poetry of motion with sylphlike delicacy and winning grace. We now behold her at home, beneath her own roof, plainly but tastefully attired, and though the brilliancy of the portrait may be somewhat subdued, yet has it lost nothing of its beauty. The dress which she now wears sets off the exquisite symmetry of her shape to as much advantage as did the aerial drapery which she wore upon the stage; the 276 Eomichbooks