“There was a great wide stairway with red carpet, beyond which was the cloakroom, and once having struggled through that, my chaperone straightened me out and shook my train, telling me I looked ‘just sweet,’ a very consoling remark in my flutter of excitement. She then gave me my train back over my arm, and we were ready. Four yards of Court train were pretty heavy, I found; for although it was shining silver outside, it was lined with white satin (_débutantes_’ dresses are always white), and there was an interlining to make it stand out as I passed before the King and Queen. Then I had a bouquet too, which seemed to grow very heavy before the evening was over, and I envied those ladies who had come without such floral adjuncts. “Continuing our journey up the staircase we gave up our cards of invitation at the top, and I passed into a room at the left—my chaperone passing on to the big ballroom at once. “The great State ballroom at Buckingham Palace is a magnificent chamber; it is an immensely long saloon, probably about a hundred and fifty feet, which looks out on the gardens. A friend we met there said that the kitchens were underneath, and that this wing was only added in 1850, when more space was found necessary. “Our friend told us that all the rooms had been redecorated. They were certainly perfectly beautiful—such lovely brocaded walls and wonderful curtains, lots of pictures, many of which they said were priceless; and one thing struck me as particularly strange: the magnificent glass chandeliers and candelabra. We never have such things in America; but they were simply gorgeous with incandescent lights shining behind their prismatic colours. The Palace was literally banked with flowers and the air scented with their perfume.