uld have been in her eyes. "It is really sad," the outraged
baroness once said to me, "that in these days princes and monarchs choose
their mistresses only from the stage, or even from the scum of the
people. But it is the fault of our ladies themselves. They mistake their
vocation! Ah! Where are those delightful times when the daughters of the
first families looked upon it as an honor to become their princes'
mistresses?"

Consequently, the horror of the blue-blooded, aristocratic lady was
intense when the Prince, in his usual, amiable, careless manner,
suggested to her to people her deer park with girls of the lower orders.

"It is a ridiculous prejudice," the Prince said on that occasion, "which
obliges us to shut ourselves off from the other ranks, and to confine
ourselves altogether to our own circle, for monotony and boredom are the
inevitable consequences of it. How many honorable men of sense and
education, and especially how many charming women and girls there are,
who do not belong to the aristocracy, who would infuse fresh life and a
new charm into our dull, listless society! I very much wish that a lady
like you would make a beginning, and would give up this exclusiveness,
which cannot be maintained in these days, and would enrich our circle
with the charming daughters of middle class families."

A wish of the Prince's was as good as a command; so the baroness made a
wry face, but she accommodated herself to the circumstances, and promised
to invite some of the prettiest girls of the _plebs_ to a ball in a few
days. She really issued a number of invitations, and even condescended to
drive to the house of each of them in person. "But I must ask one thing
of you," she said to each of the pretty girls, "and that is to come
dressed as simply as possible; washing muslins will be best. The Prince
dislikes all finery and ostentation and he would be very vexed with me if
I were the cause of any extravagance on your part."

The great day arrived; it was quite an event for the little town, and all
classes of society were in a state of the greatest excitement. The
pretty, plebeian girls, with her whom the Prince had first noticed at
their head, appeared in all their innocence, in plain, washing dresses,
according to the Prince's orders, with their hair plainly dressed, and
without any ornaments, except their own fresh, buxom charms. When they
were all captives in the den of the proud, aristocratic lioness, the poor