The opening paragraph
of Lord Arthur Savile's Crime….
A Study
in Scarlet
Written by Oscar Wilde,
and published in 1891.
It
was Lady Windermere's last reception before Easter, and Bentinck House
was even more crowded than usual. Six Cabinet Ministers had come on from
the Speaker's Levée in their stars and ribands, all the pretty
women wore their smartest dresses, and at the end of the picture-gallery
stood the Princess Sophia of Carlsrühe, a heavy Tartar-looking lady,
with tiny black eyes and wonderful emeralds, talking bad French at the
top of her voice, and laughing immoderately at everything that was said
to her. It was certainly a wonderful medley of people. Gorgeous peeresses
chatted affably with violent Radicals, popular preachers brushed coat-tails
with eminent sceptics, a bevy of bishops kept following a stout prima-donna
from room to room, on the staircase stood several Royal Academicians,
disguised as artists, and it was said that at one time the supper-room
was absolutely crammed with geniuses. In fact, it was one of Lady Windermere's
best nights, and the Princess stayed till nearly half-past eleven.
