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shadow, and all the mean faces in it underwent eclipse. Her splendour
blotted out all else.
Every eye was turned towards her.
Tom-Jim-Jack was in the crowd. He was lost like the rest in the nimbus
of this dazzling creature.
The lady at first absorbed the whole attention of the public, who had
crowded to the performance, thus somewhat diminishing the opening
effects of "Chaos Vanquished."
Whatever might be the air of dreamland about her, for those who were
near she was a woman; perchance too much a woman.
She was tall and amply formed, and showed as much as possible of her
magnificent person. She wore heavy earrings of pearls, with which were
mixed those whimsical jewels called "keys of England." Her upper dress
was of Indian muslin, embroidered all over with gold--a great luxury,
because those muslin dresses then cost six hundred crowns. A large
diamond brooch closed her chemise, the which she wore so as to display
her shoulders and bosom, in the immodest fashion of the time; the
chemisette was made of that lawn of which Anne of Austria had sheets so
fine that they could be passed through a ring. She wore what seemed like
a cuirass of rubies--some uncut, but polished, and precious stones were
sewn all over the body of her dress. Then, her eyebrows were blackened
with Indian ink; and her arms, elbows, shoulders, chin, and nostrils,
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