I cannot here help mentioning a very interesting little scene at which I was present, about this time.  The queen had nobody but myself with her, one morning, when the king hastily entered the room, with some letters in his hand, and addressing her in German, which he spoke very fast, and with much apparent interest in what he said, he brought the letters up to her, and put them into her hand.  She received them with much agitation, but evidently of a much pleased sort, and endeavoured to kiss his hand as he held them.  He would not let her, but made an effort, with a countenance of the highest satisfaction, to kiss hers.  I saw instantly in her eyes a forgetfulness, at the moment, that any one was present, while, drawing away her hand, she presented him her cheek.  He accepted her kindness with the same frank affection that she offered it; and the next moment they both spoke English, and talked upon common and general subjects.

What they said I am far enough from knowing; but the whole was too rapid to give me time to quit the room ; and I could not but see with pleasure that the queen had received some favour with which she was sensibly delighted, and that the king, in her acknowledgments, was happily and amply paid.

Tabledifficulties.

No sooner did I find that my coadjutrix ceased to speak of returning to Windsor,(222) and that I became, by that means, the presidentess of the dinner and teatable, than I formed a grand design—­no other than to obtain to my own use the disposal of my evenings.

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>From the time of my entrance into this Court, to that of which I am writing, I had never been informed that it was incumbent upon me to receive the king’s equerries at the teatable ; yet I observed that they always came to Mrs. Schwellenberg, and that she expected them so entirely as never to make tea till their arrival.  Nevertheless, nothing of that sort had ever been intimated to me, and I saw no necessity of falling into all her ways, without commands to that purpose :  nor could I conclude that the king’s gentlemen would expect from me either the same confinement, or readiness of reception, as had belonged to two invalid old ladies, glad of company, and without a single connection to draw them from home. . . .

I could not, however, but be struck with a circumstance that shewed me, in a rather singular manner, my tea-making seemed at once to be regarded as indispensable :  this was no other than a constant summons, which John regularly brought me every evening, from these gentlemen, to acquaint me they were come upstairs to the tea-room, and waiting for me.

I determined not to notice this:  and consequently, the first time Mrs. Delany was not well enough to give me her valuable society at the Lodge, I went to her house, and spent the evening there; without sending any message to the equerries, as any apology must imply a right on their part that must involve me in future confinement.