It all seemed unreal and a fantasy like the long table in front of her, the glitter of jewels and the pomposity of the gentlemen loaded with their decorations.
‘It is all a dream,’ she thought. ‘I shall wake up and find that nothing is happening to me except that I can walk through the deserted State rooms of The Palace on my way to my lessons.’
It was a quarter-to-eleven before the dinner came to an end and the Queen rose from the table.
She went out of the dining room and into another room where they were served with coffee and liqueurs.
There was a chair and in front of it a little table where the Queen seated herself.
The guests stood in a circle a considerable distance from her and the Queen sipped her coffee while a page held her saucer on a gold salver.
The guests talked among
