Page 17 - The She-Bear

hen, seeing that so many fair faces
were all show and no wool,he
turned his thoughts to his own daughter, saying,
"Why do I go seeking the impossible when my
daughter Preziosa is formed in the same mould
of beauty as her mother? I have this fair face
here in my house, and yet go looking for it at
the fag-end of the world. She shall marry
whom I will, and so I shall have an heir."
When Preziosa heard this she retired to her
chamber, and bewailing her ill-fortune as if she
would not leave a hair upon her head; and,
whilst she was lamenting thus, an old woman
came to her, who was her confidant. As soon as
she saw Preziosa, who seemed to belong more
to the other world than to this, and heard the
cause of her grief, the old woman said to her,
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