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18 considerable violence to his own feelings, he granted her request.

Grognon arrived, and was so thunderstruck by what she saw, that she was at her wit's end how further to torment Gracieuse. She did not omit to beat her, however, saying that the feathers were ill arranged. She sent for the Fairy, and flew into a violent passion with her. The Fairy knew not how to answer her; she was perfectly confounded. At length she told Grognon that she would employ all her skill in making a box which should bring her prisoner into great trouble if she ventured to open it; and a few days afterwards she brought a box of a tolerable size. "Here," said she to Grognon, "order your slave to carry this somewhere. Forbid her particularly to open it. She will not be able to resist it, and you will be satisfied." Grognon followed her instructions implicitly. "Carry the box," said she to Gracieuse, "to my fine château, and place it on the table in my closet: but I forbid you, under pain of death, to look at what it contains." Gracieuse set off with her wooden shoes, her cloth dress, and her woollen hood. All who met her exclaimed, "That must be a goddess in disguise!" for nothing could conceal her marvellous beauty. She had not walked far before she felt tired. In passing through a little wood, on the skirt of a pleasant meadow, she sat down to take breath. She placed the box on her knees, and suddenly felt an inclination to open it. "What can happen to me?" said she; "I wont take anything out of it, but only see what there is in it." She thought no more of the consequences, but opened the box, and immediately out came a quantity of little men and women, fiddlers, musical instruments, little tables, little cooks, little dishes,—in fact, the giant of the party was not bigger than one's finger. They skipped about the meadow, divided themselves into several groupes, and began the prettiest ball that ever was seen. Some danced, others cooked, others feasted, the little fiddlers played admirably. Gracieuse, at first, was somewhat amused by so extraordinary a sight; but after she had rested a little, and wanted to get them back into the box, not one of them would obey her. The little gentlemen and ladies ran away. The fiddlers followed their example. The cooks, with their stewpans on their heads and their spits on their shoulders, scampered into the wood when she entered the