274 ANOTHER CHAPTER ON THE " RIGHTS OF WOMAN."" 



touched with these marks of familiar goodness than he^ would have been 

 with the most noble actions performed by other women." 



At length they arrive at the miniature kingdom of the princess, in 

 Friuli. Quintilia did the honours of her little principality to St. 

 Julien with infinite gaiety. It was evidently her humour not to 

 suffer by the ridiculous figure of her magistrates, the contemptible 

 display of her military forces, and the contracted circle of her do- 

 minions. She laughed at them with sprightliriess and piquancy, 

 without at the same time losing any opportunity of artfully pointing 

 out to him the effects of a wise administration. To St. Julien, who 

 had never been beyond the manor surrounding the gothic towers of 

 the old chateau of his ancestors, the pomp and circumstance of this 

 miniature royalty were objects of lively admiration. The beauty of 

 the sky, the rich colours of the landscape, the coquettish elegance of 

 the palace, built in the oriental style, after designs of the princess 

 herself, the air of importance of the great lords of the little court, the 

 somewhat superannuated but rich costumes of the dignitaries of the 

 household, assumed in the eyes of the young countryman an air of 

 splendour and of majesty, which gave to his fortune the appearance 

 of a dream. After the usual court ceremonies, St. Julien is lodged, 

 dressed, and established in every way befitting the dignity of his 

 office, with due consideration for the peculiar bent of his character, 

 and he enters at once on the discharge of his office of confidential 

 secretary. The close intimacy which it induces proves fatal to him, 

 for he falls desperately in love with his benefactress ; but we shall let 

 our authoress describe the growth and progress of the passion, as it is 

 one of those delienations which are peculiarly her own. 



" On the following morning the princess summoned St. Julien to her 

 cabinet. A thousand schemes occupied her thoughts. She contemplated 

 a notable reduction of her expenditure, the founding of a new hospital, the 

 reduction of a religious establishment, the composition of a treatise on 

 political economy, and numberless projects of a similar nature. St. Julien 

 was alarmed at the variety and extent of what was to be effected, but she 

 laid down the principal points so clearly, and assisted him by explanations 

 so lucid and precise, that he soon began to see his way through what he 

 took at first to be nothing more than the chaos of a woman's brain. 



" Several months were employed in drawing up and perfecting this 

 work. All this time the princess remained shut up within her palace : balls 

 and drawing-rooms were suspended ; the courts were silent, and the facades 

 of the palace unilluminated. Quintilia habited in a flowing robe of black 

 velvet, with her hair bound up beneath a cap a la Marie Stuart, seemed 

 utterly forgetful of the gaity, the bustle and the pomp, of which she usually 

 appeared so fond. Absorbed in serious studies and useful reflections, she 

 allowed herself no other amusement but that of smoking in the evening on 

 the terrace with her confidental associates, her page, her secretary, and La 

 Ginetta. Sometimes she accompanied them in a gondola on the pretty 

 little river called Celina, which flowed through her principality. But their 

 former playful gaiety was banished from their conversation. The projects 

 of the succeeding, and the works of the past day, brought her into continual 

 and immediate relation with St. Julien. The familiarity resulting from it 

 was marked by something peaceful and fraternal, which was more than 

 friendship, while it did not resemble love. At least so thought St. Julien : 

 but his whole soul was engrossed, all his faculties absorbed by one single 



