Stroke of this hour the first peeress enters the transept, clothed like Solomon

Мультиязыковой проект Ильи Франка www.franklang.ru

For splendor, and is conducted to her appointed place by an official clad in

satins and velvets, whilst a duplicate of him gathers up the lady's long train,

Follows after, and, when the lady is seated, arranges the train across her lap

For her. He then places her footstool according to her desire, after which he

Puts her coronet where it will be convenient to her hand when the time for the

Simultaneous coroneting of the nobles shall arrive.

By this time the peeresses are flowing in in a glittering stream, and satin-clad

Officials are flitting and glinting everywhere, seating them and making them

Comfortable. The scene is animated enough now. There is stir and life, and

Shifting color everywhere. After a time, quiet reigns again; for the peeresses

Are all come, and are all in their places — a solid acre, or such a matter, of

Human flowers, resplendent in variegated colors, and frosted like a Milky

Way with diamonds. There are all ages here: brown, wrinkled, white-haired

Dowagers who are able to go back, and still back, down the stream of time,

And recall the crowning of Richard III and the troublous days of that old

Forgotten age; and there are handsome middle-aged dames; and lovely and