Page:A thousand years hence. Being personal experiences (IA thousandyearshen00gree).djvu/240

 selections. By our extraordinary course, we were, in effect, saying, that either side was so perfect throughout, and thus so equally matched, that any two, taken at hap-hazard, would prove as suitably mated as any other two. Those of our own people, who were not in the secret, quailed visibly at such rashness, and rampant triumph was already running over the Italian side. "Whom the gods would destroy they first turn mad," was in every mind, and upon every glib tongue in that quarter, and the betting there went furiously on at any offered odds.

Now the great event of the receptions is opened, and all eyes are curiously turned, more especially to where the élite of England is to emerge, in order to confront that of Italy. The quality of the latter had been already declared as the long line defiled shortly before from the arrival platform; and the enthusiastic ovation, into which we were impelled on the occasion, showed all the more clearly the sense of the country's approaching danger.

The candidates on our side had, until now, been carefully, and rather mysteriously shrouded from common view. The Italians were not slow to jump at a probable reason, and forthwith, even more expectant than before, their betting grew even still wilder. When the first name in letter A was called on our visitors' side, and a living form of unsurpassable grace and beauty came responsively forth for Italy, every eye at once turned to the opposite entrance where England was simultaneously to put in her rival appearance. A buzz of admiring satisfaction, which immediately passed through the great assembled company, told that England had not