al,
intriguing for selfish objects of their own with as much malice and
meanness as could be practiced by Madame du Barri herself.

Still, in spite of these drawbacks, it was almost inevitable that they
should have great influence over their niece. Their experience might well
be presumed by her to have given them a correct insight into the ways of
the court, and the best mode of behaving to their own father; and she, a
foreigner and almost a child, was not only in need of counsel and
guidance, but had no one else of her own sex to whom she could so
naturally look for information or advice. They were, as she explained to
Mercy, her only society; and, though she was too clear-sighted not to see
their faults, and not at times to be aware that she was suffering from
their perverseness, she, like other people, was often compelled to
tolerate what she could not mend, and to shut her eyes to disagreeable
qualities when forced to live on terms of intimacy with the possessors.

On this point Maria Teresa was, perhaps, hardly inclined to make
sufficient allowance for her difficulties, and insisted over and over
again on the mischief which would arise to her from the habit of
surrendering her judgment to these princesses. She told her that, though
far from being devoid of virtues and real merit, "they had never succeeded
in making themselves loved or esteemed by either their father or the
public;[3]" and she added other admonitions which, as they were avowedly
suggested by reports that had reached her, may be taken as indicating some
errors into which her daughter's lightness of heart had occasionally
betrayed her. She entreated her not to show an exclusive preference for
the more youthful portion of her society, to the neglect of those who were
older, and commonly of higher consideration; never to laugh at people or
turn them into ridicule--no habit could be more injurious to herself, and
indulgence in it would give reason to doubt her good-nature; it might gain
her the applause of a few young people, but it would alienate a much
greater number, and those the people of the most real weight and
respectability. "This is not," said the experienced and wise empress, "a
trivial matter in a princess. We live on the stage of the great world, and
it is above all things essential that people should entertain a high idea
of us. If you will only not allow others to lead you astray, you are sure
of success; a kind Providence has endowed you