The Blithedale Romance by Nathaniel Hawthorne Chapter 22 Page 24

“Keep it, — keep all your wealth, — until I demand it all, or none! My message had no such end in view. You are beautiful, they tell me; and I desired to look at you.”

He took the one lamp that showed the discomfort and sordidness of his abode, and approaching Zenobia held it up, so as to gain the more perfect view of her, from top to toe.

So obscure was the chamber, that you could see the reflection of her diamonds thrown upon the dingy wall, and flickering with the rise and fall of Zenobia’s breath. It was the splendor of those jewels on her neck, like lamps that burn before some fair temple, and the jewelled flower in her hair, more than the murky, yellow light, that helped him to see her beauty. But he beheld it, and grew proud at heart; his own figure,