Page:Tales of old Lusitania.djvu/152



time ago there lived a very beautiful woman, who was the landlady of a roadside inn, principally patronised by muleteers and merchants who passed that way with their merchandise. This woman had a daughter whose great misfortune it was to be still fairer than her mother. The mother was so jealous of this daughter that she kept her shut up in a dark room with all the windows closed, so that no one should see her. Poor girl, she often wished she had been born very plain, so that she might have her liberty, and enjoy life like other young people.

When any muleteers entered her inn, the first question the landlady would put to them was, if they had ever seen any woman more beautiful than her self? and as they generally answered "No," she was satisfied they had not seen her daughter. One day the girl, however, contrived to open a window, and a muleteer, who came to the inn and was