A few minutes afterwards, the doors were thrown open, and the whole company advanced into the royal apartments.
The etiquette of the court of Leaphigh differs in many essential particulars from the etiquette of any other court in the monikin region.
Neither the king, nor his royal consort, is ever visible to any one in the country, so far as is vulgarly known.

On the present occasion, two thrones were placed at opposite extremities of the salon, and a magnificent crimson damask curtain was so closely drawn before each, that it was quite impossible to see who occupied it.

On the lowest step there stood a chamberlain or a lady of the bed-chamber, who, severally, made all the speeches, and otherwise enacted the parts of the illustrious couple.

The reader will understand, therefore, that all which is here attributed to either of these great personages, was in fact performed by one or the other of the substitutes named, and that I never had the honor of actually standing face to face with their majesties.

Everything that is now about to be related, in short, was actually done by deputy, on the part of the monarch and his wife.
The king himself merely represents a sentiment, all the power belonging to his eldest first cousin of the masculine gender, and any intercourse with him is entirely of a disinterested or of a sentimental character.