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90 allayed his thirst, and supper being nearly over, he made off to the sideboard, and drank two bottles of delicious nectar.

The Princess entered her closet; she desired Abricotine to follow her, and to shut the door. Leander kept close to her, and made a third in the apartment, unperceived. The Princess said to her confidant, "Acknowledge that thou hast exaggerated in describing to me this unknown; it appears to me impossible that he can be so charming." "I protest, Madam," replied she, "that if I have erred in anything it is in not having praised him enough." The Princess sighed, and was silent for a minute; then, resuming the conversation, "I am obliged to you," said she, "for having refused to bring him with you." "But, Madam," replied Abricotine, (who was a shrewd girl, and saw already the turn her mistress's thoughts were taking,) supposing he had come hither to admire the wonders of this beautiful place, what harm could it have caused to you? Do you desire to remain for ever unknown in this corner of the world, hidden from all other mortals? Of what value is so much grandeur, pomp, and magnificence, if nobody see it?" "Peace! Peace! little casuist," cried the Princess; "trouble not the happy repose I have enjoyed these six hundred years. Dost thou imagine, if I had led a restless and turbulent life I could have existed so many years? None but innocent and tranquil pleasures can produce such effects. Have we not read in the best histories the revolutions of great empires, the unforeseen blows of inconstant fortunes, the wild excesses of love, the pangs of absence or of jealousy? What is it that occasions all these terrors and afflictions? Nothing but the intercourse between the sexes. Thanks to the precaution of my mother, I am exempt from all these crosses, I feel no heart-aches, I cherish no vain desires, I know neither envy, love, nor hatred. Ah! for ever, for ever, let us enjoy the happy indifference!" Abricotine did not venture to reply: the Princess waited a short time, and then asked her if she had nothing to say. She answered, that in that case she thought it had been very unnecessary to send miniatures of the Princess to the courts of several foreign sovereigns, where they would only make people miserable; as everybody would be dying to see her, and not being able to do so, would go distracted." "Notwithstanding that," said the Princess, "I confess, I wish that my