Page 88 - Child's own book

very little lime about her person ; but she had so strange an
itching to talk, that from the very moment she waked till the
time she fcU asleep again, her mouth vras never shut. She
kept a register of all those wives who starved tbeir families at
home, to appear the finer abroad, and was exactly informed
what such a countess's woman, and such 3 marquess’s steward
gained. The better to be instructed in all these little affairs,
she gave audience to her nurse, and mantna-maker, with
greater pleasure than she would to any ambassador; and when
she !ud got anything new, she tired everybody with repeating
to them these fine stories, from the king, her father, down to
the fix>tuiaii; for, provided she could but talk, she did not care
to whom it was. Never did Pratilia, any more than Drona,
employ herself in thinking, reflecting, or reading. She never
troubled herself about household mattery or the amusements
of her spindle and needle. In short, these two sisters lived in
perfect idleness, as well of mind a3 of body.
The youngest of these three princesses was of a different cha­
racter. Her thoughts and hands were continually employed:
she possessed surprising vivacity, and applied it to good uses.
She danced, sung, and played music to perfection ; finished
with wonderful address and skill all those works of the hand
which generally amuse those of her sex* and used every vigi­
lance in putting the king's household into exact regulation and
order. Her talents were not bounded there : she had a great
deal of judgment, and such a wonderful presence of mind, that
she immediately found the means of extricating herself out of
the greatest difficulties. This young princess had> by her
penetration, discovered a dangerous snare which a perfidious
ambassador had laid for the king, her father, in a treaty just
ready to be signed by that prince. To punish the treachery of
this ambassador and his master, the king altered the article of