He
then places her footstool according to her desire, after which he puts
her coronet where it will be convenient to her hand when the time
for the simultaneous coroneting of the nobles shall arrive.
By this time the peeresses are flowing in in a glittering
stream, and satin-clad officials are flitting and glinting everywhere,
seating them and making them comfortable. The scene is animated enough
now. There is stir and life, and shifting color everywhere. After a
time, quiet reigns again; for the peeresses are all come, and are
all in their places- a solid acre, or such a matter, of human flowers,
resplendent in variegated colors, and frosted like a Milky Way with
diamonds. There are all ages here: brown, wrinkled, white-haired
dowagers who are able to go back, and still back, down the stream of
time, and recall the crowning of Richard III and the troublous days of
that old forgotten age; and there are handsome middle-aged dames;
and lovely and gracious young matrons; and gentle and beautiful
young girls, with beaming eyes and fresh complexions, who may possibly
put on their jeweled coronets awkwardly when the great time comes; for
the matter will be new to them, and their excitement will be a sore
hindrance. Still, this may not happen, for the hair of all these
ladies has been arranged with a special view to the swift and
successful lodging of the crown in its place when the signal comes.
We have seen that this massed array of peeresses is sown thick
with diamonds, and we also see that it is a marvelous spectacle- but
now we are about to be astonished in earnest.
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