means that De Grammont thus delayed the fulfilment of his engagement.
Charles II., inexcusably lavish, gave him a pension of 1500 Jacobuses:
it was to be paid to him until he should be restored to the favour of
his own king. The fact was that De Grammont contributed to the pleasures
of the court, and pleasure was the household deity of Whitehall.
Sometimes, in those days of careless gaiety, there were promenades in
Spring Gardens, or the Mall; sometimes the court beauties sallied forth
on horseback; at other times there were shows on the river, which then
washed the very foundations of Whitehall. There in the summer evenings,
when it was too hot and dusty to walk, old Thames might be seen covered
with little boats, filled with court and city beauties, attending the
royal barges; collations, music, and fireworks completed the scene, and
De Grammont always contrived some surprise--some gallant show: once a
concert of vocal and instrumental music, which he had privately brought
from Paris, struck up unexpectedly: another time a collation brought
from the gay capital surpassed that supplied by the king. Then the
Chevalier, finding that coaches with glass windows, lately introduced,
displeased the ladies, because their charms were only partially seen in
them, sent for the most elegant and superb _calèche_ ever seen: it came
after a month's journey, and was presented by De Grammont to the king.
It was a royal present in price, for it had cost two thousand livres.
The famous dispute between Lady Castlemaine and Miss Stuart, afterwards
Duchess of Richmond, arose about this _calèche_. The Queen and the
Duchess of York appeared first in it in Hyde Park, which had then
recently been fenced in with brick. Lady Castlemaine thought that the
_calèche_ showed off a fine figure better than the coach; Miss Stuart
was of the same opinion. Both these grown-up babies wished to have the
coach on the same day, but Miss Stuart prevailed.

The Queen condescended to laugh at the quarrels of these two foolish