The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1885-10-16
PRESENTED AT COURT.
A Woman's Story of Presentation at a
Royal Drawing Room.


Do you think you can go to a
':drawing room" without learning how
to make o proper reverence? No, in
deed. You must go to cozy little
house in the West End, where very
elegant and quaint little old French
lady will show you all you have to do
for a guinea @ lesson, and then on the
afternoon before the great day you go
to see the lady who is to present you
to get the important tickets, and to
receive explicit instructions as toyour
line of conduct, for, as the lady belongs
to the diplomatic circle, she will be in
the room with her royal highness, and
you must enter alone. At her house
you meet some gentlemen, and one
tells you that when he was presented
was the only moment in his life that he
has known what fear was, and that he
was in agony lest he should trip over
his sword, and you think of your
three or four yards of train, and you
are sure that it will be much worse
than a sword. And another tells you
tina the young ladies usually white
and trembling with fear, and that often
they make a terrible fasco; they tell
you of one poor unfortunate, who, in
stead of kissing the queens hand when
it was extended to her, shook it vigor
ously, then realizing what she had
done, lost her head completely, and,
forget ting all the great line of person
ages, turned her back and incontinent-
ly fled.
By the time you leave your instruct
ress' house, you are trembling in every
limb, and you spend all the rest of the
evening making courtesies to the chairs
and sofas, and fervently hoping that
you may not disgrace your country
on the morrow.
Your landlords daughter devotes
herself to you for the next day, and
makes th3 most helpful and obliglng
of little dressing-malds, and at last
you are ready, all pearls, lace and
shining silk. 1t is quite a long gdrive to
the park, but suddenly you see the
Horse Guards and then you knowyou
have arrived, and inside the gates
you find hundreds and hundreds
Of people waiting to see the car
riages pass and standing on tiptoe to
catch a glimpse of you. All the way
up the long drive the Horse Guards, in
their long plumes and brilliant scarlet,
are stationed at right and left, and in
side the palace gates is a long row of
horsemen standing close together, and
you alight to the sound of martial
music. When you have left your wrap
in a room near the entrance you 60 up
very grand stairway, past men with
spears call '|Beef-eaters," dressed inred
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 long time gaz-
ing at the lovely views of the park
through the wide windows, and study
ing the dresses.
AS you pass the door to thepresence
chamber you drop your train from
your arm, and the two chamberlains
or whatever they are called quickly
and deity straighten 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 pronounc-
ing your. name in a 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 the princess: but how many
there are, OF what they look like, you
haven't the least idea;you see the prince
quite distinctly, and you walk sideways
and make a series of little diminish
ing bows to the row of dukes or prin-
ces Or whatever they may be, but of
them you retain not the faintest inn
preston 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! It 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