Page 24 - Princess Belle-Etoile and Prince Cherie

trumpets, hautbois, kettle and other drums,
which made noise enough to be heard a long
way off. The confidants of the Queen-Mother
had advised her to conceal her displeasure, as
it would offend the King, and the
consequences might be disagreeable. She
constrained herself, therefore, and received
her two daughters-in-law with apparent

kindness, making them presents of jewels, and
praising whatever they did, whether it was
good or bad.
The fair Queen and Princess Brunette were
united by a strict friendship; but Roussette
hated them both mortally—"Only see," said
she, "the good luck of my two sisters; one is a

Queen, the other wife of a Prince of the
blood-royal. Their husbands adore them; and I,
who am the eldest, and who consider myself
an hundred times handsomer than either of
them, I have only married an admiral, who
doesn't care for me half as much as he ought."
The jealousy she entertained of her sisters
soon made her one of the party of the Queen-
Mother, for it was well known that the

affection she displayed for her daughters-in-
law was but feigned, and that nothing would
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