was informed that her Majesty was listening to a concert in the rosery.
Thither he went unattended,--and passing through a long suite of
splendid rooms, each one more sumptuously adorned than the last, he
presently stepped out on the velvet greensward of one of the most
perfect rose gardens in the world--a garden walled entirely round with
tall hedges of the clambering flowers which gave it its name, and which
were trailed up on all sides, so as to form a ceiling or hanging canopy
above. In the centre of this floral hall, now in full blossom, a
fountain tossed up one tall column of silver spray; and at its upper
end, against a background of the dainty white roses called "Felicite
perpetuelle" sat the Queen, in a high chair of carved ivory, surrounded
by her ladies. Delicious music, performed by players and singers who
were hidden behind the trees, floated in voluptuous strains upon the
air, and the King, looking at the exquisite grouping of fair women and
flowers, lit by the coloured lamps which gleamed here and there among
the thick foliage, wondered to himself how it chanced, that amid
surroundings which were calculated to move the senses to the most
refined and delicate rapture, he himself could feel no quickening
pulse, no touch of admiration. These open-air renderings of music and
song were the Queen's favourite form of recreation;--at such times
alone would her proud face soften and her eyes grow languid with an
unrevealed weight of dreams. But should her husband, or any one of his
sex break in upon the charmed circle, her pleasure was at once
clouded,--and the cold hauteur of her beautiful features became again
inflexibly frozen. Such was the case now, when perceiving the King, she
waved her hand as a sign for the music to cease; and with a glance of
something like wonderment at his intrusion, saluted him profoundly as
he entered the precincts of her garden Court. But for once he did not
pause as usual, on his way to where she sat,--but lightly acknowledging
the deep curtseys of the ladies in attendance, he advanced towards her