But what spoke better for him than all these things was the
quiet weeping of a good woman up in the Royal Closet, half hidden by the
sombre curtains, who looked and listened to the last, and saw her husband
let down into the Royal Vault, where, in the darkness, his--their baby-
girl awaited him, that Princess with the short life and the long name--
poor little Elizabeth Georgina Adelando, whom the childless Queen once
hoped to hear hailed "Elizabeth Second of England."
In midsummer the Queen, the Duchess of Kent, and their grand Household
moved from Kensington to Buckingham Palace, then new, and an elegant and
luxurious royal residence internally, but externally neither beautiful
nor imposing. But with the exception of Windsor Castle, none of the
English Royal Palaces can be pointed to as models of architectural
beauty, or even sumptuous appointments. The palaces of some of our
Railway Kings more than rival them in some respects, while those of many
of the English nobility are richer in art-treasures and grander in
appearance. Kensington Palace was not beautiful, but it was picturesque
and historic, which was more than could be said of any of the Georgian
structures; there was about it an odor of old royalty, of poetry and
romance.
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