Page:The Strand Magazine (Volume 6).djvu/233
upright "Pleyel" piano; this also having an Oriental covering, upon which rest some silver candlesticks, a framed portrait of the eldest son of the house—"Dolly" written across it—and a basket of ferns and flowers. Beside the piano is a pile of music; and what a wonderful and fearful number there are dedicated and composed for the wedding! How tired even this amiable Princess must be of wading through such an endless mass of monotony! That they had been looked over and used, appearances proved: waltz, gavotte, and polka, nearly all bearing execrable likenesses of the Princess and the Duke, and nearly all not being worth the paper they cover.
Just now, the fire-place is fronted with handsome hand-painted screens; on the right—almost in the corner—standing a large canopied seat, with a basket-work exterior and lined in satin—a very comfortable-looking arrangement it is. Near this stands a huge work-basket, from which peep out sundry pieces of knitting of various sizes and colours. You all know how the Princess has been in the habit of working for the poor around her gates! How with never-failing industry she has sewn and knitted, even continuing her work when chatting to morning callers; finding time all too short for the work she ever found awaiting her.
The door panels are exquisitely painted with branches of trees, having squirrels in playful attitudes, strikingly true to life. Over each doorway depend Oriental curtains, and a number of pretty white flower-stands display ferns and white Marguerite. Time is indicated by a French time-piece in malachite and ormolu, and by a handsome little travelling clock on the writing table. Hanging lamps and bronze candelabra light the room by night; the daylight streaming through French windows opening on to a charming white painted balcony, replete with hanging baskets of ferns and flowers, and looking on to lawn and gardens. Small and unpretentious in appearance is the room wherein the Princess has spent so many happy hours of her youth, but so cosy, so thoroughly home-like, and showing such evidences of its owner's taste and skill, and so full of pretty mementos of relations and friends, that I should imagine feelings of real regret would arise at leaving such a spot.
Opening from here is a room used for various purposes: sometimes by Mlle. Bricka, to write letters, etc., sometimes by the young Princes to read and smoke. In it there is a goodly array of books: travels, history, magazines, military and naval works, and a case containing the whole of Scott's. A few old paintings may be seen, also a few good caricatures, one especially funny of Corney Grain and Grossmith. In the centre of the mantel is a bronze bust of Her Majesty, and in different parts of the room other bronzes, one or two time-pieces, some old china, and a model of a mortar. Writing tables and easy comfortable chairs abound, with an assorted collection of pipes and other masculine property here and there.
The Duke of Teck's sitting-room
From a Photo. by Gunn & Stuart.
Now I retrace my steps through the