Our Little Lady | Page 9

covered with painting, and
the furniture upholstered in silk, they came into the midst of a second
crowd of very grand ladies. By this time poor Agnes had quite lost her
head; and when one of the fine ladies asked her what she wanted, she
could only drop a succession of courtesies and look totally bewildered.
Old Muriel managed better.
"Under your leave, Madam, we have been sent for by my Lady the
Queen."
"Oh, are you the people who come about the nurses' place?" said the
young lady, who looked good-natured enough. "Follow me, and I will
lead you to the Queen's chamber."
How many more chambers can there be? was the wonder uppermost in
the mind of Agnes. But they walked through several more, each to her
eyes grander than the last, painted, with stained glass windows, and
silk-covered furniture. At length the young lady desired them to wait a
moment where they were, while she took in their names to the Queen.
She drew back a crimson silk curtain, and disappeared behind it; and
the three--for they had never thought of leaving Avice behind--stood
looking round them in admiring astonishment. They were not left to
wonder long. The curtain was drawn back, and the voice of some
unseen person bade them go forward.
They found themselves in a smaller room than the last, beautifully
decorated. The walls were painted a very pale blue, and large frescoes
ornamented each side of the chamber. Thick marble columns, highly
polished, jutted out into the room, and in the recess between each pair
was a marble bench, with cushions of crimson samite. Two
walnut-wood chairs, furnished with crimson samite cushions, stood in
the middle of the room. Small leaf-tables were fixed to the walls here
and there. The floor was of waxed wood, very slippery to tread upon.
At the farther side of the room two doors stood open, side by side, the
one leading to a little oratory in the turret, the other to a balcony which
ran round the tower. In one corner a young lady sat at an embroidery

frame, and in another a little girl of seven years old, who deeply
interested Avice, was feeding her pet peacock. In one of the chairs,
with some fancy work in her hand, sat a lady whose age was about
twenty-eight, and whose rich dress of gold-coloured samite, and the
gold and pearl fillet which bound her hair, divided Avice's attention
with the child and the peacock. Agnes was dropping flurried courtesies
to everybody at once. Muriel, who seemed to have a much better notion
of what she ought to do, took a step forward, and knelt before the lady
who sat in the chair.
"Lady," she said, "we are the Queen's servants."
Queen Eleanor, for it was she, looked up on them with a smile. She was
a beautiful brunette, lively and animated when she spoke, but with an
easy-going, lazy expression when she did not. It struck Avice, who had
eyes for everything, and was making good use of them, that her
Majesty might have brushed her rich dark hair a little smoother, and
have fastened her diamond brooch less unevenly than she had done.
It was the pleasanter side of Queen Eleanor which was being shown to
them. She could be very pleasant when she was pleased, and very kind
and affable when she liked people. But she could be very harsh and
tyrannical to those whom she did not like; and she was one of those
many people with whom out of sight is out of mind. Let her see a
suffering child, and she would be sorry and anxious to help; but a
thousand suffering people whom she did not see, even if something
which she did had made them suffer, were nothing at all to her.
The Queen liked her visitors. She thought old Muriel looked reliable;
she was amused with the bewildered reverence of Agnes; and as to
Avice, a child more or less in Windsor Castle mattered very little. She
would do to feed the peacock when Princess Margaret did not choose to
attend to it. So the bargain was soon struck; and almost before she had
discovered what was going to happen to her, Agnes found herself the
day-nurse of the Lord Richard, the little Prince who was then in the
cradle. Muriel was made mistress of the nurses; and even little Avice
received a formal appointment as waiting-damsel on the Princess
Margaret, the little girl who was feeding the peacock. They were then

dismissed from the royal presence.
"Thou hadst better go with them, Margaret Bysset," said the Queen,
with a rather amused smile, to the young lady who had brought them in;
"otherwise they may wander about all day."
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