The mistress of the establishment speedily appeared. She had been a
splendid Jewish beauty, and still in middle age, had great owl-like
eyes, and a complexion that did her credit to her arts; but there was
something indescribably repulsive in her fawning, deferential curtsey,
as she said, in a flattering tone, with a slightly foreign accent,
"The pretty lady is come, as our noble dame promised, to explain to
the poor Cora Darke the great queen's secret! Ah! how good it is to
have learning. What would not my clients give for such a skin as
hers! And I have many more, and greater than you would think, come
to poor Cora's cottage. There was a countess here but yesterday to
ask how to blanch the complexion of miladi her daughter, who is about
to wed a young baronet, beautiful as Love. Bah! I might as well try
to whiten a clove gillyflower! Yet what has not nature done for this
lovely miss?"
"Shall I read you the paper?" said Aurelia, longing to end this part
of the affair.
"Be seated, fair and gracious lady."
Aurelia tried to wave aside a chair, but Mrs. Darke, on the plea of
looking over the words as she read, got her down upon a low couch,
putting her own stout person and hooked face in unpleasant proximity,
while she asked questions, and Aurelia mentioned her own conjectures
on the obsolete French of the recipe, while she perceived, to her
alarm, that the woman understood the technical terms much better than
she did, and that her ignorance could have been only an excuse.
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