24 FOX-HOUND, FOREST, AND PEAIRIE. 



that sharp weapon with which all the sex are gifted, have been 

 wielded with less bitter force then and until now ? Think you, 

 would the dresses of one or two fair sisters have been pro- 

 nounced so positively unbecoming? Would it have been so 

 difficult a task to " imagine what anyone could possibly see in 

 them ? " Would their present and previous lives have been 

 thought worthy of so much amiable criticism had not the royal 

 command fallen upon them that they were to dance with their 

 future King ? 



But every woman in the moment of triumph is a queen. 

 She loses at once all sense of fear, all self-consciousness, all that 

 mistrust of her own powers that the rougher sex are seldom 

 able entirely to overcome on finding themselves suddenly in the 

 presence of superiors. The sense of successful rivalry is alone 

 enough to nerve her. She asks for no sympathy ; she cares for 

 no congratulation ; it is enough for her that victory is hers. 

 She will hold her head erect, appear as unembarrassed and 

 engaging as in everyday intimacy to all appearance imcon- 

 scious of the buzz of personalities of which she is the object ; or 

 she may glance once proudly round with a look that says as 

 plain as words, "Have I not conquered, oh my rivals ? " How- 

 ever, as minnows may disport themselves in a salmon pool, the 

 smaller fry made the most of their opportunity, and his Royal 

 Highness was not the only one who enjoyed himself that night. 

 Ladies in foreign Britain, it has been often remarked, ever 

 dance with greater zest than even in merrie England. In 

 their maiden beauty they find themselves more sought after ; 

 in matronhood they are not bound, Andromeda-like, by the 

 chain of matrimony to the ball-room wall ; while even in the 

 sere and yellow leaf they may gambol sportively in the land of 

 curry and rice. 



So the Madras Club Ball went off happily that Thursday 

 night. 



On Friday the programme arranged for his Royal Highness 

 comprised as much as would suffice at any ordinary time and 

 with any ordinary mortal for a whole week's work. After 



