[
106]
General Badeau, in his curious and valuable book on “Aristocracy in
England,” describes an occasion where Prince Leopold and the Prime-minister of
England brought with them in the carriage an African prince.
“He looked to me,” says
Badeau, “like any little negro boy of nine or ten; but he had his gentlemen-in-waiting, he took precedence of the Prince-minister, and he stood on the red carpet reserved for royalty alone.”
The difference is that all this in
England is in a manner serious; even persons of liberal opinions half believe in it, as a little girl half believes that her doll is hungry unless allowed a bit of her luncheon.
In
America it has been a curious combination of genuine international hospitality with a sort of pleasurable playing at something hitherto only known through the medium of books.
My own acquaintance with the toy of royalty is very limited, having been confined, so far as personal conversation goes, to one emperor and his empress.
It was enough at least to furnish a standard, and to diminish the importance of minor interviews.
One must draw the line somewhere, and I might perhaps draw it at emperors.
His Imperial Majesty of Brazil was certainly a well-informed man, with a creditable appreciation of Whittier's poetry.
There was a curious little lady-in-waiting, I remember, who went round reminding people that her
