Attending impatiently the arrival of your Majesty upon the other side of the copse. I go to make him aware of your presence.
[He bows himself out, and the Queen looking anxiously in the direction of the vanishing Phedro espies Prince Charles and the Duchess upon a lawn.]
Queen [adjusting her lorgnette]
How silly people look playing croquet. The Duchess appears to me exactly like a bent hairpin.
2d Courtier
[Looking also in the direction of the Duchess and half admiringly.]
Indeed, Madame, her Grace is too tall to look well bending down.
Queen [turning upon him]
I hope you are not hiding a mud-sling in your silk swallow-tail. Perhaps you forget a courtier's principal duty should be the culture of tact, and tact is nothing whatever but helping me exaggerate my humours until I tire of them.
2d Courtier