The Works of George W. M. Reynolds — page 114: what you’re looking at

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

ANGELA VIVALDI 97 wane, concealed beneath flashing gems, the artifice of cosmetics, and studied smiles.: Oh, if the polished surface of that bright and joyous scene were dazzling and thrilling and overpowering to contemplate, yet were the veil which shrouded the secret thoughts drawn aside and the interior of every heart exposed, the eye would perhaps have recoiled in amazement and in horror from the chaos of feelings and pandemonium of passions thus revealed to the gaze. Might it not then be said that the stage-lights served but to separate two sets of actors, the audience and the performers? As on the former occasion when we introduced our readers to the opera, Lady Florina and some female friends were there, accompanied by Lord Harold Staunton and Lord Saxondale. In the pit, occupying one of the foremost seats just behind the orchestra, was: William Deveril, the young professor of drawing and painting whose name has been before mentioned. In the royal box Queen Victoria and the Duchess of Kent were seated; behind them stood several lords and ladies in waiting, those obsequious hangers-on of royalty who are more contemptible in their grovelling sycophancy than the most servile toad-eaters and _ lick- spittles are in a less elevated sphere of life. In a neighbour- ing box to the royal one was a German prince, the reigning duke of some nameless state consisting of a few beggarly acres, and who was attended by some very queer-looking persons, whom the newspapers next day represented as “a brilliant suite.’’ Indeed, this illustrious prince had paid the present visit to England attended by the principal officers of his court and the staff of his army, his coachman being at the same time field-marshal and commander-in- chief, his valet the prime minister of the duchy, his head cook the lord chamberlain, and his butler the master of the horse. All these high functionaries of state were dressed in splendid uniforms, and their most serene and _ illustrious master was covered with stars, orders, and decorations. It was a very brilliant suite indeed. We have already said that the house was thronged to suffocation; we may add that it was crowded as it had never béen before. When the doors were first thrown open and the crush took place, the German prince had got his head so jammed against a pillar that if it had not been of a thick- ness truly enviable on such an occasion it would have been GomiGaooks (S(O)