y.

The duchess and the marchionesses entered. Between the wide hangings of
dark-blue velvet, on which glittered the cross of St. Ladislas, and
under the canopy supported by gilt pillars, sat the empress, like an
idol, glittering in the shadow in her watered-silver brocade, the ermine
imperial mantle falling in heavy folds to her feet, a small diadem
sparkling upon her head. To the right of the throne, on a low stool, sat
the Princess Thera, on the left stood the mistress of the robes, the
Countess of Threma; round about, on either side, a crowd of
ladies-in-waiting, court-officials, equerries, maids of honour, grooms
of the bed-chamber....

The duchess made her curtsey, approached the throne and with great
reverence, as though with diffident lips, touched the jewelled
finger-tips, which the empress held out like a live relic. Then the
duchess took two steps backwards; the marchionesses, one after the
other, followed her example, surprising everybody by the attractive
freshness of their first court-movements, in which the touch of
awkwardness became a charm. Then the bows, in a long ritual of
withdrawal, backwards. They disappeared through other doors, found
themselves in a long gallery, entered other reception-rooms, where
people stood waiting for their carriages. And the two girls looked at
each other, seeking each other's impressions, still crimson with the
excitement in their vain little hearts and strangely surprised at the
incomprehensible briefness of this first and all-important moment of
their lives as grown-up people, as ladies accompanying their mamma to
the Imperial, where they would thenceforth lead their existence. For how
many months beforehand they had thought and dreamed of this moment; now,
suddenly, with surprising quickness, it was over....

The duchess chucked Helene under the chin, put Eleonore's veil straight,
said that they had curtseyed beautifully, that she had herself even
noticed how pleased the Countess of Threma had been with them. Then she
chatted busily with the other ladies, introduced the little
marchionesses, promised visits. Then she turned to a flunkey:

"Go and see where my carriage is and tell it to leave the rank and drive
up last. Here...."

She gave him a gold coin; the flunkey disappeared. A nervous impatience
seized the duchess; she looked out anxiously for Dutri. At last her eyes
caught sight of him; he came up with his fatuous fussiness:

"Alexa, it's impossible...."