THE PRINCE OF WALES AT MADRAS, 1375. 23 



of them all ? Had not the P. and 0. steamers arrived week 

 after week laden with little else than ball dresses ? Had not 

 the club loungers been ousted from their most comfortable 

 corners — nav, almost condemned to starvation for months be- 

 forehand ? Had not a solid masonry staircase of fabulous 

 breadth and terrific cost been erected, to be trodden only by 

 the patent Wellington of royalty, then to be pulled down rather 

 than be degraded by any less worthy footfall ? Had not tall 

 palm trees been brought in alive and whole to throw their 

 sheltering branches over couples dancing and sitting ? Had 

 not a special room for H.E.H. been furnished in a style that 

 put every palace of the Arabian Nights into the shade ? And 

 to preside over the refreshment department of this had not the 

 managers advertised for weeks past in the Madras papers for a 

 " respectable young woman " — and alas, alas ! none was forth- 

 coming ! Had not an enormous canvas banqueting-hall been 

 erected, and a supper spread whereat a hermit must have 

 feasted, or even the men of Madras found that they were 

 thirsty ? And had not every flat roof of the building been 

 turned for the nonce into happy loitering grounds, mid flowers 

 and shrubs, and Chinese lanterns thick as the sand on the sea- 

 shore, to shed light and propriety on every nook and sofa? 

 And was not the ball-room itself a scene " to be imagined " 

 (a phrase we scribblers by literary license adopt when de- 

 scription fails us) ? Thousands of crystal lights, hundreds of 

 bright eyes, half that number of brilliant dresses, jewels, 

 uniforms, glances, and smiles, the whole one blaze of light and 

 glittering mirth. 



The Prince arrived to find all in readiness to welcome him ; 

 and after he had run the gauntlet of a double row of beauty — 

 close-packed so as to leave the narrowest of alleys for his 

 passage — he led Mrs. Shaw Stewart, the wife of the president 

 of the club, to a quadrille, and the ball began in earnest. Oh 

 that his Royal Highness could have cut his dances into tiny 

 slices, and distributed to each fair hungerer her little portion ! 

 Would not much heart-burning have been saved ? Would not 



