At nine we were all in the ball-room, the prettiest little theatre you ever saw. Henry Greville and Miss Raikes, Grampus and Alice, le grand genre. Harry Howard, looking quite beautiful in a black wig like Louis XIV.’s, acted the villain of the piece perfectly. Freddy as Walter Barnard and Marion Ellice as Bella had the greatest success. Plunket, an excellent comic actor as Jemmy Starling. Miss Thelusson had set beautifully all sorts of the prettiest bits of opera music, and played them with a band of Tolbecque.

The marriage procession, the dance of the girls; Émilie de Flahault looked lovely, and all very pretty. There were no longueurs or mischances, the greatest possible success, immense applause, and when at the close Miss Raikes, called for, led on the modest, reluctant Marion, and curtseying, picked up wreath and nosegay thrown by Mouchy, no words can describe the contentment of all parties.