"
"She a dove!--she is rather a hawk," sighed the princess in despair;
but her father bade her hold her tongue, and promise to love her
stepmother, who would have over her all the authority of a mother, and
to whom he wished to present her that very day.
The obedient princess went to her apartment, where her nurse soon
found out the sorrow in her face, and its cause.
"My child," said the good old woman, "princesses ought to show a good
example to humbler women. Promise me to do your best to please your
father, and to make yourself agreeable to the stepmother he has
chosen for you. She may not be so bad after, all."
And the nurse gave so much good advice, that Graciosa began to smile,
and dressed herself in her best attire, a green robe embroidered with
gold; while her fair, loose-falling hair was adorned, according to the
fashion of the day, with a coronet of jasmine, of which the leaves
were made of large emeralds.
Grognon, on her part, made the best of herself that was possible. She
put on a high-heeled shoe to appear less lame, she padded her
shoulders, dyed her red hair black, and put in a false eye; then
dressed herself in a hooped petticoat of violet satin trimmed with
blue, and an upper gown of yellow with green ribands. In this costume,
she wished to enter the city on horseback, as she understood the
queens were in the habit of doing.
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