- end_line
- 12840
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:26.988Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 12792
- text
- attraction to the being for whom all this splendour glistened; and the
grandeur of the room served only to show to advantage the matchless
beauty of its inmate. These superb decorations, though lavished in
boundless profusion, were the mere accessories of a creature, whose
loveliness was of that spiritual cast that depended upon no adventitious
aid, and which as no obscurity could diminish, so no art could heighten.
When I first obtained a glimpse of this lovely being, she lay reclining
upon an ottoman; in one hand holding a lute, and with the other, lost in
the profusion of her silken tresses, she supported her head. I could not
refrain from recalling the passionate exclamation of Romeo:--
‘See, how she leans her cheek upon her hand!
O, that I were a glove upon that hand,
That I might touch that cheek!’
She was habited in a flowing robe of the purest white, and her hair,
escaping from the fillet of roses which had bound it, spread its
negligent graces over neck and bosom and shoulder, as though unwilling
to reveal the extent of such transcendent charms. Her zone was of pink
satin, on which were broidered figures of Cupid in the act of drawing
his bow; while the ample folds of her Turkish sleeve were gathered at
the wrist by a bracelet of immense rubies, each of which represented a
heart pierced through by a golden shaft. Her fingers were decorated with
a variety of rings, which as she waved her hand to me as I entered,
darted forth a thousand coruscations, and gleamed their brilliant
splendours to the sight. Peeping from beneath the envious skirts of her
mantle, and almost buried in the downy cushion on which it reposed, lay
revealed the prettiest foot you can imagine cased in a satin slipper,
which clung to the fairylike member by means of a diamond clasp.
As I entered the apartment, her eyes were downcast, and the expression
of her face was mournfully interesting; she had apparently been lost in
some melancholy revery. Upon my entrance, however, her countenance
brightened, as with a queenly wave of the hand she motioned my
conductress from the room, and left me standing, mute, admiring, and
bewildered in her presence.
For a moment my brain spun round, and I had not at command a single one
of my faculties. Recovering my self-possession, however, and with that,
my good breeding, I advanced _en cavalier_, and gracefully sinking on
one knee, I bowed my head and exclaimed, ‘Here do I prostrate myself,
thou sweet Divinity, and kneel at the shrine of thy beauty.’
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- title
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