1II.] THE SILVER FAIRIES. 157

a ND,

ladies whose station entitled them to visit their Sove-
reign, and of the decorous, not to say graceful beha-
viour which would distinguish the assembly and which
she would have to imitate as best she could. Great,
then, was her astonishment and dismay at finding the
extraordinary difference of the reality from the scene
which she had expected.

A. crowd of ladies, more or less well-dressed, but if
well-bred, ladies who had left their good breeding be-
hind them for the day, jostled each other in the ante-
rooms, pushed, struggled, looked daggers, dropped re-
marks more cutting than their looks, and positively
fought their way almost into the presence of Royalty
in a manner which, to the milk-man’s granddaughter,
appeared anything but dignified, and scarcely respect-
ful to the august lady to whom they had come to do
honour. Dolly, after a severe struggle with this ill-
behaved throng of her fair sisters, found herself once
more in the carriage of the lady who had taken her
to the Drawing-room, being the wife of a brother
member who had made Simon’s acquaintance and
had good-naturedly offered to help him out of the
difficulty he experienced in finding some one to look
after his granddaughter upon that eventful occasion.

The poor girl returned home with her gown half
torn off her back, her shoulder scratched by the epaulet
of an unscrupulous gentleman in attendance upon some
other ladies, and her arm smarting from the savage
pinch of a malicious old dowager whose progress
towards Royalty she had unwittingly barred. She was
dreadfully disappointed at the’whole scene and was
effectually cured of her Court-going propensity, so