temeraire was very interested in all the guests , particularly admiring the more bejeweled of the ladies , and managed by accident to please the marchioness of carstoke , a lady of advanced years and receded neckline whose bosom was concealed only by a vulgar set of emeralds-in-gold , by informing her she looked a good deal more the part , in his estimation , than the queen of prussia , whom he had only seen in traveling-clothes .