ce; still less in his
bearing, language, or qualities.

The queen and her court have come from chapel, to meet the royal
absentee at the great gate: the consort, who was to his gracious majesty
like an elder sister rather than a wife, bends down, not to his knees,
but yet she bends, to kiss the hand of her royal husband. She is a fair,
fat woman, no longer young, scarcely comely; but with a charm of
manners, a composure, and a _savoir faire_ that causes one to regard her
as mated, not matched to the little creature in that cocked-hat, which
he does not take off even when she stands before him. The pair,
nevertheless, embrace: it is a triennial ceremony performed when the
king goes or returns from Hanover, but suffered to lapse at other times;
but the condescension is too great: and Caroline ends, where she began:
'gluing her lips to the ungracious hand held out to her in evident
ill-humour.

They turn, and walk through the court, then up the grand staircase, into
the queen's apartment. The king has been swearing all the way at England
and the English, because he has been obliged to return from Hanover,
where the German mode of life and new mistresses were more agreeable to
him than the English customs and an old wife. He displays, therefore,
even on this supposed happy occasion, one of the worst outbreaks of his
insufferable temper, of which the queen is the first victim. All the
company in the palace, both ladies and gentlemen, are ordered to enter:
he talks to them all, but to the queen he says not a word.

She is attended by Mrs. Clayton, afterwards Lady Sundon, whose lively
manners and great good temper and good will--lent out like leasehold to
all, till she saw what their friendship might bring,--are always useful
at these _tristes rencontres_. Mrs. Clayton is the amalgamating
substance between chemical agents which have, of themselves, no
cohesion; she covers with address what is awkward; she smooths down with
something pleasant what is rude; she turns off--and her office in that
respect is no sinecure at that court--what is indecent, so as to keep
the small majority of the company who have respectable notions in good
humour. To the right of Queen Caroline stands another of her majesty's
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 lo