Joining up with Heidi's
Inkling Explorations, here are a few descriptions of Marguerite Blakeney from
The Scarlet Pimpernel.
Marguerite Blakeney was then scarcely five-and-twenty, and her beauty was
at its most dazzling stage. The large hat, with its undulating and waving
plumes, threw a soft shadow across the classic brow with the aureole of
auburn hair—free at the moment from any powder; the sweet, almost
childlike mouth, the straight chiselled nose, round chin, and delicate
throat, all seemed set off by the picturesque costume of the period. The
rich blue velvet robe moulded in its every line the graceful contour of
the figure, whilst one tiny hand held, with a dignity all its own, the
tall stick adorned with a large bunch of ribbons which fashionable ladies
of the period had taken to carrying recently.
Lord Grenville took a hasty farewell of the ladies and slipped back into
his box, where M. Chauvelin had sat through this ENTR'ACTE, with his
eternal snuff-box in his hand, and with his keen pale eyes intently fixed
upon a box opposite him, where, with much frou-frou of silken skirts, much
laughter and general stir of curiosity amongst the audience, Marguerite
Blakeney had just entered, accompanied by her husband, and looking
divinely pretty beneath the wealth of her golden, reddish curls, slightly
besprinkled with powder, and tied back at the nape of her graceful neck
with a gigantic black bow. Always dressed in the very latest vagary of
fashion, Marguerite alone among the ladies that night had discarded the
crossover fichu and broad-lapelled over-dress, which had been in fashion
for the last two or three years. She wore the short-waisted
classical-shaped gown, which so soon was to become the approved mode in
every country in Europe. It suited her graceful, regal figure to
perfection, composed as it was of shimmering stuff which seemed a mass of
rich gold embroidery.
The moon had sunk low down behind a bank of clouds. In the east a soft
grey light was beginning to chase away the heavy mantle of the night. He
could only see her graceful outline now, the small queenly head, with its
wealth of reddish golden curls, and the glittering gems forming the small,
star-shaped, red flower which she wore as a diadem in her hair.
