Excerpt from The Veil of the Temple or From Dark to Twilight Mrs. Vernon at intervals would offer up to this deity an elaborately serious observation, as though it were a species of sacrifice, or propose in vain to introduce him to some celebrity. He would always, when this occurred, respond to her with condescend ing deference: but, singular to relate, the conversa tion going on around him, evidently had for him a far more absorbing interest than that which his so licitous friend prepared for his private benefit. Her question, for instance, as to whether the Archbishop, who had once been nearly expelled from the Eng lish Church as a rationalist, could in his old age be really a believer in miracles, he showed a disposition to shelve rather than answer: but he seemed to hang on her syllables when, patting an embroidered knee, she informed two adjoining dowagers of the aston ishing cheapness of her costume, which had, it ap peared, cost only thirty guineas, whereas somebody called Katinka would not have made it for sixty. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.