Page:The Great Secret.djvu/126

110 able to flattery, only the ass can exist where the horse cannot. Meat and drink are not with her a necessity; they are only casual indulgencies which she is much better without.

Had there been any soft young men about, the princess, the baroness and the countess would have aired their stale graces and made these young men miserable; but as there were none, they buckled to without a murmur, endured the cutting Antarctic breezes, restrained their appetites, and followed in the trail of the men with the docility and naturalism of primitive women.