been lurking
behind the matchless impassivity of that yellow face.

A few days later Victoria poured out her heart to her uncle. The
first of May, she said, was "the GREATEST day in our history, the most
BEAUTIFUL and IMPOSING and TOUCHING spectacle ever seen, and the triumph
of my beloved Albert... It was the HAPPIEST, PROUDEST day in my life,
and I can think of nothing else. Albert's dearest name is immortalised
with this GREAT conception, HIS own, and my OWN dear country SHOWED she
was WORTHY of it. The triumph is IMMENSE."

It was. The enthusiasm was universal; even the bitterest scoffers were
converted, and joined in the chorus of praise. Congratulations from
public bodies poured in; the City of Paris gave a great fete to the
Exhibition committee; and the Queen and the Prince made a triumphal
progress through the North of England. The financial results were
equally remarkable. The total profit made by the Exhibition amounted to
a sum of L165,000, which was employed in the purchase of land for the
erection of a permanent National Museum in South Kensington. During
the six months of its existence in Hyde Park over six million persons
visited it, and not a single accident occurred. But there is an end to
all things; and the time had come for the Crystal Palace to be removed
to the salubrious seclusion of Sydenham. Victoria, sad but resigned,
paid her final visit. "It looked so beautiful," she said. "I could not
believe it was the last time I was to see it. An organ, accompanied by
a fine and powerful wind instrument called the sommerophone, was being
played, and it nearly upset me. The canvas is very dirty, the red
curtains are faded and many things are very much soiled, still the
effect is fresh and new as ever and most beautiful. The glass fountain
was already removed... and the sappers and miners were rolling about
the little boxes just as they did at the beginning. It made us all very
melancholy." But more cheerful thoughts followed. When all was over,
she expressed her boundless satisfaction in a dithyrambic letter to
the Prime Minister. Her beloved husband's name, she said, was for ever
immortalised, and that this was universally recognised by the country
was a source to her of immense happiness and gratitude. "She feels
grateful to Providence," Her Majesty concluded, "to have permitted her
to be united to so great, so noble, so excellent a Prince, and this year
will ever remain the proudest and happiest of he