146 PRINCE RICARDO.

 

struments. It may be useful when one is
obliged to defend oneself, but surely a prince
ought not to give his whole time to nothing
else!”

Dick had no answer ready, so he only
grumbled :

“‘You’re always preaching at me, Jack;
everybody alwaysis. Iseem to have been born
just to be preached at.”

Some people are; and it does grow rather
tedious in the long run. But perhaps what
Jaqueline said may have made some impres-
sion on Ricardo, for he stuck to his books for
weeks, and was got into decimal fractions and
Euclid.

All this, of course, pleased the king very
much, and he began to entertain hopes of
Ricardo’s becoming a wise and learned prince,
and a credit to his illustrious family.

Things were not always to go smoothly, far
from it; and it was poor Jaqueline who fell into.
trouble next. She had been very ready to
lecture Dick, as we saw, and took a good deal
of credit to herself for his steadiness. . But
one day King Prigio happened to meet Jaque-
line’s maid, Rosina, on the stairs; and as Rosina
was a pretty girl, and the king was always kind
to his dependents, he stopped to have a chat
with her.

“Why, Rosina, what a pretty little silver
cross you are wearing,” he said, and he lifted a