Page:The Strand Magazine (Volume 4).djvu/228

 quarter of an inch in breadth, and is composed of two, and sometimes three, shades of colour, in the softest pinks, yellows, mauves, and blues. As for the wreathing, it is an artistic triumph. Each little pink or yellow rose, which would lie easily on a threepenny piece, has its neatly adjusted green centre and stalk and accompanying leaves, all of which in their turn are cut and shaped with wonderful skill.

Several of the dolls are dressed in the different characters taken by the celebrated Marie Taglioni and her sisters in the ballets of "La Bayadère," "La Sylphide," and "William Tell."

The Princess must at an early age have been expert with her knitting needles, for the ballerina, as a Tyrolean peasant in "William Tell" (14), wears neat little pink and blue stockings and nicely fitting white shoes. She has a short crimson silk skirt edged with bands of green and gold braid, a bodice of crimson and gold brocade with short sleeves of white muslin, and the most coquettish of muslin and lace aprons. There is another doll representing Taglioni in "La Sylphide" (10), dressed by Baroness Lehzen in a very much abbreviated muslin dress, which is, however, of less consequence when we perceive she has charming little gossamer wings painted in white and gold. A silver wreath is pinned on her hair (see page 233). She again appears dressed by the Baroness as a peasant in "La Bayadère" (7), and is a romantic and picturesque figure in her scarlet stomacher, wee scarlet tippet and big blue velvet capote with bunches of pink roses.

The number and variety of the Liliputian mummers set one wondering whether the Princess had a miniature theatre, and, if so, whether she arranged her puppets simply as lay figures in tableaux, or whether they acted their parts with make-believe speech and gesture. What a fascinating picture it is of the little painted cardboard theatre, and