CHAPTER THREEThe King and Queen entered the ballroom and the ladies curtseying on either side of them seemed to rise and fall like the wave of some gloriously-shaded sea.
‘He is exactly like his pictures,’ Cornelia thought as she watched, ‘but the Queen is far, far lovelier.’
Queen Alexandra, in a dress of grey satin, managed to make every other woman seem clumsy and dowdy. The perfect oval of her face, the fine brow, clear-cut nose and dazzling complexion were enhanced by the colour of her eyes. Her little head, set upon a firm white throat, had a grace and that was inimitable and the radiance of her smile made everyone she looked at her captive.
The ballroom at Londonderry House, with its lovely glittering chandeliers, its white and gold decoration, its fabulous portraits and banks of
