XVI. LADY BLOOMFIELD. THIS lady was maid-of-honor to Queen Yictoria for some years. The queen, it appears, has in her ser- vice eight young ladies thus entitled, who are in attend- ance in the palace three months of every year, so that there are always two " in waiting." The compensation of these honorable maidens is four hundred pounds a year each, or two thousand dollars. It costs, therefore, sixteen thousand dollars a year to provide the Queen with this portion of her " court," without reckoning the expense of their maintenance. As for the duties of the position, they are not very arduous. The business of a maid-of-honor is to make herself agreeable to the royal family when more important guests are not present, and to assist in entertaining per- sonages of distinction. The queen has 'her breakfast at ten o'clock, her lunch at two, her ride in the afternoon, her dinner at eight, and goes to bed about midnight. The maids-of-honor usually attend on these occasions, ride with her, play whist with her, and join in whatever game happens to be the favorite at the moment. According to Lady Bloomfield, who has written a book about her life at courts, there is only one regular task imposed upon the maids. " Our chief duty," she says, " seems to consist in giving the queen her bouquet before dinner, which is certainly not very hard work ! And even this only happens every (219)
