household, to whom the most deferential attention is paid by all present; nevertheless, she is queen of the court, but not the queen of the royal master of that court.  It is Lady Suffolk, the mistress of King George II., and long mistress of the robes to Queen Caroline.  She is now past the bloom of youth, but her attractions are not in their wane; but endured until she had attained her seventy-ninth year.  Of a middle height, well made, extremely fair, with very fine light hair, she attracts regard from her sweet, fresh face, which had in it a comeliness independent of regularity of feature.  According to her invariable custom, she is dressed with simplicity; her silky tresses are drawn somewhat back from her snowy forehead, and fall in long tresses on her shoulders, not less transparently white.  She wears a gown of rich silk, opening in front to display a chemisette of the most delicate cambric, which is scarcely less delicate than her skin.  Her slender arms are without bracelets, and her taper fingers without rings.  As she stands behind the queen, holding her majesty’s fan and gloves, she is obliged, from her deafness, to lean her fair face with its sunny hair first to the right side, then to the left, with the helpless air of one exceedingly deaf—­for she had been afflicted with that infirmity for some years:  yet one cannot say whether her appealing looks, which seem to say, ’Enlighten me if you please,’—­and the sort of softened manner in which she accepts civilities which she scarcely comprehends do not enhance the wonderful charm which drew every one who knew her towards this frail, but passionless woman.

[Illustration:  SCENE BEFORE KENSINGTON PALACE—­GEORGE II.  AND QUEEN CAROLINE.]

The queen forms the centre of the group.  Caroline, daughter of the Marquis of Brandenburgh-Anspach, notwithstanding her residence in England of many years, notwithstanding her having been, at the era at which this biography begins, ten years its queen—­is still German in every attribute.  She retains, in her fair and comely face, traces of having been handsome; but her skin is deeply scarred by the cruel small-pox.  She is now at that time of life when Sir Robert Walpole even thought it expedient to reconcile her to no longer being an object of attraction to her royal consort.  As a woman, she has ceased to be attractive to a man of the character of George II.; but, as a queen, she is still, as far as manners are concerned, incomparable.  As she turns to address various members of the assembly, her style is full of sweetness as well as of courtesy, yet on other occasions she is majesty itself.  The tones of her voice, with its still foreign accent, are most captivating; her eyes penetrate into every countenance on which they rest.  Her figure, plump and matronly, has lost much of its contour; but is well suited for her part.  Majesty in women should be embonpoint.  Her hands are beautifully white, and faultless in shape.  The king always