The Fairy Godmothers. 21

rora, {topping her ears with her hands, and run-
ning round the room fhaking her long curls furi-
oufly. ‘* Vous me faites abfolument frémir !
Excufe my French, but I am certain you are the
eldeft daughter of the old woman in the wood, and
you are juft now dropping vipers, toads, newts,
and efts from your mouth at every word you ut-
ter!”

The good-natured Governefs laughed heartily
at the joke, for they had juft been reading the old
French fairy tale of “‘ Les deux Fées,” and the
application amufed her ; but fhe fhook her head
gravely at Aurora afterwards, and reminded her
that no ferious truth was well anfwered by a joke,
however droll.

A bell rings, a carriage is at the door. Mifs
Aurora is wanted. Vifiters! Ah! here is hap-
pinefs again! But it lafts but a fhort time, and
the reaction is the fame as before—drooping eyes,
languid eyelids, and a figh.

Books, drawing, mufic, work, even domeftic
recreations, all deprived of their charm through
this idolatry of felf!

The curtain clofed over this {cene.

“A charming child, Ianthe, but for your Fairy
Gift, which is fpoiling her.”

“* I repeat to you we are no judges yet. Now
for riches, Euphrofyne !”

At the fame hour of evening, and under the
fame circumftances, of a party about to affemble,