a proper distribution of
employments, and a small share of vigilance.... People who know how to
employ themselves always find leisure moments, while those who do
nothing are in want of time for any thing.... I think that a wife should
keep the linen and clothes in order, or cause them to be so kept; nurse
her children; give directions concerning the cookery, or superintend it
herself, but without saying a word about it, and with such command of
her temper, and such management of her time, as may leave her the means
of talking of other matters, and of pleasing no less by her good humor
than by the graces natural to her sex.... It is nearly the same in the
government of states as of families. Those famous housewives who are
always expatiating on their labors are sure either to leave much in
arrears, or to render themselves tiresome to every one around them; and,
in like manner, those men in power so talkative and so full of business,
only make a mighty bustle about the difficulties they are in because too
awkward or ignorant to remove them."

An acquaintance which one of her uncles, who was an ecclesiastic, had
with an upper servant of the royal household, enabled her to spend some
days at the palace of Versailles. She was lodged with the servants, and
enjoyed the servant's privilege of seeing every thing and sparing
nothing. Royalty was never put in the focus of eyes so critical. Her
comments upon this visit are very brief. She expresses her detestation
of what she saw, saying, "It gives me the feeling of injustice, and
obliges me every moment to contemplate absurdity."

The studies and experiences which have been described bring us to her
fifteenth year. She was then a beautiful woman. In her memoirs she
declines to state how she looked when a child, saying that she knows a
better time for such a sketch. In describing herself at fifteen, she
says: "I was five feet four inches tall; my leg was shapely; my hips
high and prominent; my chest broad and nobly decorated; my shoulders
flat; ... my face had nothing striking in it except a great deal of
color, and much softness and expression; my mouth is a little too
wide--you may see prettier every day--but you will see none with a smile
more tender and engaging; my eyes are not very large; the color of the
iris is hazel; my hair is dark brown; my nose gave me some uneasiness; I
thought it a little too flat at the end.... It is only since my beauty
has faded that I have known