The Hawaiian gazette., 1885-09-16
! prs.snted at tho English Court.

~ IlPresented at the English Court.
Do YOU think you can go to drawing
room without learning the proper rev
erences No, indeed. You must 60 to
cosy little house in the West End, where
a very elegant and quaint little old French
lady will show you what you have to do,
for guinea a lesson. and then on the
afternoon of the great day you so to see
the lady who is to present you, to get the
important tickets and to receive explicit
instructions as to your line of conduct:
for, as the lady belongs to the diplomatic
circles she will be in the room with her
Royal Highness, and you must enter
alone. At her house you meet some gen
tlemen and one tells you that when he
was presented was the only moment IN
his life that he has known what fear was,
and he was in agony lest he should trip
over his sword, and you think Of your
three or Tour yards of train, and you are
sure thas@ill be much worse than sword.
And another tells you that the young
ladies usually are white and trembling
with fear, and that often they make ter
rible fasce; they will tell you of the poor
unfortunate, who. instead Of kissing the
Queens hand when 1t was extended to
her, shook it vigorously, and realizing
what she had done, lost her head com
pletely, and forgetting all the great line
of personages, turned her back and IncOn-
tineutly fed.
By the time you leave your lnstructress
house. you are trembling in every limb
and YOU spend the rest of the evening
Mnakilky courtesies to the chair and sofas,
rsand ltfefently hoping that you may not
disgrace Your country on the morrow.
Your landlords daughter devotes her
self to you for the next day, and makes
the most helpful and obliging of little
dressingsmaids, and at last you are ready,
all pearls, lace and shining silk. Ii Is
quite long drive to the park, but sud
denly you see the Horse Guards, and then
you know you have arrived, and inside the
gates you find hundreds and hundreds Of
people waiting to see the carriages pass,
and standing on tiptoe to catch glimpse
Of you. ALI the way up the long drive
the Horse Guards, IN their long plumes
and brilliant scarlet, are stationed at
right and left, and inside the palace gates
is long row of horsemen standing close
together, and you alight to the sound Of
martial music. When you have left your
wrap in room near the entrance you go
up verv grand stairway, past men with
spears, called "beef eaters" dressed in
red and yellow; You hand one of your
tickets to the Queens page; and are
ushered with a great many ladies into a
huge room, all red and gold, and there you
sit for quite a long time, gazing at the
lovely views of the park through the wide
windows and studying the dresses.
As you pass the door to the presence
chamber you drop your train from your
urn and the two chamberlains-or what
ever they are-guickly and deity straight
en- it to its full length as you walk slowly
forward; at the door of the throne-room
some one takes your second card, and
then you hear the Lord Chamberlain pro
nouncing your name in q very loud voice,
and now you are bowling to the Princess;
you wish the ladies behind you would not
come quite so fast, for you feel hurried
and are conscious you are not making
your reverence the way you were taught;
you courtesy to the ladies next to the
Princess, but how many there are, or what
they look like. you haven't the least idea,
you see the Prince quite distinctly, and
you walk sideways and make series Of
little diminishing bows to the row Of
Dukes or Princes or whatever they may
be; but of them you retain not the faint
est impression. Suddenly you feel your
train hustled on to your arm, for in your
confusion you have forgotten to hold
your arm out properly, and the great deed
is done. 1t has lasted in all about fifteen
seconds; you haven't seen anything very
distinctly, and you retain only one idea
that her Royal Highness was dressed in
light yellow but you have been presented
at Court, and surely ought to be satisfied.
The next day your name appears in the
CouRT CIRcULAR.- Christian Union.