om
had two daughters. The elder was fairer than the day, and the Queen was
so delighted, that it was feared some harm might come to her from her
great joy. The same fairy who had assisted at the birth of little
Riquet, was present upon this occasion, and in order to moderate the joy
of the Queen, she told her that this little Princess would have no gifts
of mind at all, and that she would be as stupid as she was beautiful.
The Queen was greatly mortified on hearing this, but, shortly after, she
was even more annoyed, when her second little daughter was born and
proved to be extremely ugly. "Do not distress yourself, madam," said the
fairy to her, "your daughter will find compensation, for she will have
so much intelligence, that her lack of beauty will scarcely be
perceived."

"Heaven send it may be so," replied the Queen; "but are there no means
whereby a little more understanding might be given to the elder, who is
so lovely?" "I can do nothing for her in the way of intelligence,
madam," said the fairy, "but everything in the way of beauty; as,
however, there is nothing in my power I would not do to give you
comfort, I will bestow on her the power of conferring beauty on any man
or woman who shall please her." As these two Princesses grew up, their
endowments also became more perfect, and nothing was talked of anywhere
but the beauty of the elder, and the intelligence of the younger. It is
true that their defects also greatly increased with their years. The
younger became uglier every moment, and the elder more stupid every day.
She either made no answer when she was spoken to, or else said something
foolish. With this she was so clumsy, that she could not even place four
pieces of china on a mantelshelf, without breaking one of them, or
drink a glass of water, without spilling half of it on her dress.
Notwithstanding the attraction of beauty, the younger, in whatever
society they might be, nearly always bore away the palm from her sister.
At first everyone went up to the more beautiful, to gaze at and admire
her; but they soon left her for the cleverer one, to listen to her many
pleasant and amusing sayings; and people were astonished to find that in
less than a quarter of an hour, the elder had not a soul near her, while
all the company had gathered round the younger. The elder, though very
stupid, noticed this, and would have given, without regret, all her
beauty, for half the sense of her sister. Discreet as she w