THE QUEEN’S COURT

Hokitika Guardian, 1 July 1929, Page 7

THE QUEEN’S COURT

lAIPRESSTONS OF AN AAi ERIGAN DEBUTANTE. The greatest event of my life lias come and gone. ' At least, that is how it seems to me at the first glance. I feel as if even my own wedding no longer has a single thrill in store for me. And in Court dress 011 c really does feel remarkably like a bride. Everything combines to give that impression—a debutante’s white dress .the train, the veil, the flowers, and especially the assistance of the whole family in dressing and tlie dispassionate criticism of all one’s (uninvited) friends. Bv far the- most trying part of the proceeding was the long wait in the Mall under a running fire of comment from a staring crowd. .Surely the ordinary undistinguished person can !be subjected only once in her life to such continued and flattering observation.

Every imaginable type of person was there; not only “a noble army, men and boys, the matron and the maid,” but any number of babies as well, some smiling, (but most crying dismally. I even saw one woman lift up her dog to “look at \the pretty ladies.”

The crowd was, on the whole, wonderfully quiet and well behaved, like 'all tlie English crowds I have seen. We had started very early in order to be able to get into the Throne Room; when, after sitting for an hour or so, we realised it was only just “half-time,” we began to wonder if it was worth while. But it tvas! It would have been worth while if we had had to wait for four hours instead of two. From the moment when we passed through the palace gates we left the ordinary work-a-dny world behind 11s and came into fairyland. Everythin" from the powdered and gold-braided footmen to the pictures on the walls, was exactly as one had always imagined it ought to be. Even the gentloinen-at-arms, looking so tall and stately with their high

white-plumed helmets and long, clanking swords—even tliev looked offensively modern beside the Beef-eaters, who, with their beards and ruffs, flat caps and halberds, might have stepped straight out of a sixteenth-cen-tury painting.

We passed up a staircase and along a gallery into the Throne Room where we took our places and waited.

But how different this wait was from the first! In spite of their feathers and wonderful jewels the women wore quite outshone by the men. Besides the many men in black velvet Court dress or tlie uniform of the Diplomatic Corps, there were dozens of officers in every conceivable variety of naval, military and Air Force uniform.

At last the band began to play “God Save the King” and the Queen came in, followed by a group of people even more marvellously dressed than those we had seen hitherto, and took her place on the Throne. The members of Ihe Diplomatic: Corps made their bows first—very elegant ones, so far as I could see. Then wo were marshalled out of our seats into a long corridor, where -e stood waiting. The long-looked-for but terrifying moment had come. I must have looked very frightened, for one of the men who was patiently shepherding us along smiled at me encouragingly and warned me that I must make only one curtsey. As if anyone in her senses would want G) perform that awe-inspiring evolution more than, once!

But I need not have worried. From the moment when my train was beautifully spread out behind me at one door of the Throne Room to the moment when it was picked up and put over my arm at the other everything was a complete blank—an emptiness through which may name ccemed to re-echo thunderously.

I have seldom been so angry in my life. I could have kicked myself. J had promised a good look at the Queen and the Prince of Wales and all the dignitaries on the dais, and [ saw absolutely nothing!

AVo sat clown afterwards in a room Till of wonderful portraits and hailed 'hose of our friends who emerged Tom the Throne Room. Aly chief impression of most of the women I •aw was diamonds, diamonds, and still more diamonds. AA r e had a very good view of the royal procession on its way to the supper-room, .which somewhat compensated me for my previous stupidity. I have spent a good deal of my life in England anck seen many beautiful and impressive ceremonies, but nothing that I have seen can compare wjth this, which far exceeded my wildest expectations. I may in the future soo more lovely things, but I very much doubt it.