Tales and Novels — Volume 01: Moral TalesEdgeworth, Maria
General
Tales and Novels — Volume 01: Moral Tales
Edgeworth, Maria
Fiction
These mistakes occasioned some laughter; but as Herbert perceived that
he was no longer thought stupid, he took all the laughter with good
humour, and he determined to follow, in future, Mad. de Rosier's
example, in pointing out the words which were puzzling.
Grace was astonished, at the conclusion of the evening, to find Master
Herbert in such high spirits. The next day she heard sounds of woe,
sounds agreeable to her wishes--Favoretta crying upon the stairs. It had
been a rainy morning: Favoretta and Herbert had been disappointed in
not being able to walk out; and after having been amused the preceding
evening, they were less disposed to bear disappointment, and less
inclined to employ themselves than usual. Favoretta had finished her
little basket, and her mother had promised that it should appear at the
dessert; but it wanted some hours of dinner-time; and between the
making and the performance of a promise, how long the time appears to an
impatient child! how many events happen which may change the mind of the
promiser!
Mad. de Rosier had lent Favoretta and Herbert, for their amusement,
the first number of "The Cabinet of Quadrupeds," in which there are
beautiful prints; but, unfortunately, some dispute arose between
the children. Favoretta thought her brother looked too long at the
hunchbacked camel; he accused her of turning over leaves before she had
half seen the prints; but she listened not to his just reproaches, for
she had caught a glimpse of the royal tiger springing upon Mr. Munro,
and she could no longer restrain her impatience. Each party began
to pull at the book; and the camel and the royal tiger were both in
imminent danger of being torn in pieces, when Mad. de Rosier interfered,
parted the combatants, and sent them into separate rooms, as it was her
custom to do, whenever they could not agree together.
Grace, the moment she heard Favoretta crying, went up to the room where
she was, and made her tiptoe approaches, addressing Favoretta in a
tone of compassion, which, to a child's unpractised ear, might appear,
perhaps, the natural voice of sympathy. The sobbing child hid her face
in Grace's lap; and when she had told her complaint against Mad. de
Rosier, Grace comforted her for the loss of the royal tiger by the
present of a queen-cake. Grace did not dare to stay long in the room,
lest Mad. de Rosier should detect her; she therefore left the little
girl, with a strict charge "not to say a word of the queen-cake to her
governess."
Favoretta kept the queen-cake, that she might divide it with Herbert;
for she now recollected that she had been most to blame in the dispute
about the prints. Herbert absolutely refused, however, to have any share
of the cake, and he strongly urged his sister to return it to Grace.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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