Every Girl's Library, Volume 8 of 10: A Collection of Appropriate and Instructive Reading for Girls of All Ages from the Best Authors of All Time
General
Every Girl's Library, Volume 8 of 10: A Collection of Appropriate and Instructive Reading for Girls of All Ages from the Best Authors of All Time
Literature -- Collections
For a while little Betsinda was a great favourite with the Princess, and
she danced, and sang, and made her little rhymes to amuse her mistress.
But then the princess got a monkey, and afterward a little dog, and
afterward a doll, and did not care for Betsinda any more, who became
very very melancholy and quiet, and sang no more funny songs, because
nobody cared to hear her. And, as she grew older, she was made a little
lady's maid to the Princess; and though she had no wages, she worked and
mended and put Angelica's hair in papers, and was never cross when
scolded, and was always eager to please her mistress, and was always up
early and to bed late, and at hand when wanted, and in fact became a
perfect little maid. So the two girls grew up, and when the Princess
came out, Betsinda was never tired of waiting on her, and made her
dresses better than the best milliner, and was useful in a hundred ways.
Whilst the Princess was having her masters, Betsinda would sit and watch
them; and in this way she picked up a great deal of learning; for she
was always awake, though her mistress was not, and listened to the wise
professors when Angelica was yawning or thinking of the next ball. And
when the dancing-master came, Betsinda learned along with Angelica; and
when the music-master came, she watched him and practiced the Princess'
pieces when Angelica was away at balls and parties; and when the
drawing-master came, she took note of all he said and did; and the same
with French, Italian, and all other languages--she learned them from the
teacher who came to Angelica. When the Princess was going out of an
evening she would say, "My good Betsinda, you may as well finish what I
have begun." "Yes, Miss," Betsinda would say, and sit down very
cheerful, not to _finish_ what Angelica began, but to _do_ it.
And Angelica actually believed that she did these things herself, and
received all the flattery of the Court as if every word of it was true.
Thus she began to think that there was no young woman in all the world
equal to herself, and that no young man was good enough for her. As for
Betsinda as she heard none of these praises, she was not puffed up by
them, and being a most graceful, good-natured girl, she was only too
anxious to do everything which might give her mistress pleasure. Now you
begin to perceive that Angelica had faults of her own, and was by no
means such a wonder of wonders as people represented her Royal Highness
to be.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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