The Works of George W. M. Reynolds — page 117: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

CHAPTER VIII THE DUCAL SECRETARY CHRISTIAN ASHTON entered upon his duties as private English secretary to the Duke of Maxe-Stolburg-Quotha, and a week passed, during which he gave his Royal Highness the utmost satisfaction. In the meantime he had become acquainted with all the noblemen and gentlemen forming the suite of that most illustrious prince, and perhaps the reader may wish to know a little more of thesesame German worthies. They were eight in number, delighting in names as eupho- nious to pronounce as they were easy to spell, and these shall be enumerated. Firstly, there was Count Wronki, who filled the office of lord steward, and whose chief avocation ap- peared to be in giving as few orders as possible and keeping down the hotel expenses to the utmost of his ability. The reader is already aware that the taciturn Chevalier Gum- binnen occupied the high post of lord chamberlain, with which was combined that of principal lord of the bedcham- ber; but if this latter office included the care of the duke’s wardrobe, it was very nearly a sinecure, for a single port- manteau of small dimensions could without difficulty contain all the coats, waistcoats, and trousers which his Royal High- ness possessed, and as for the linen, when there were half a dozen shirts in use and half a dozen more at the washerwoman’s, — applying the same estimate also to false collars, handkerchiefs, and stockings, — the amount of this great prince’s undergarments was not of an extent to require a great deal of supervision. Baron Rageidbak was the groom of the stole, the precise duties of which office Christian Ashton was at a loss to comprehend, unless indeed they consisted in the eating and drinking of all that his lordship could by any means get hold of, lounging 100 ™~N CONNIE OO KS m