'Rather too much so,' said the Prince, shrugging his shoulders; 'we
know what the Margaret of Anjou style of wife can do for a King of
England.'
However, as he always did what any one teased him about, if it were
not too unpleasant, and as he was passionately fond of his mother,
and as amused by playing on the vanity of la grande Mademoiselle, he
acted his part capitally. It was all in dumb show, for he really
could not speak French at that time, though he could understand what
was said to him. He, like a good many other Englishmen, held that
the less they assimilated themselves to their French hosts, the more
they showed their hopes of returning home, and it was not till after
his expedition to Scotland that he set himself to learn the language.
Queen Henrietta's skill in the toilette was noted. She laughingly
said that if everything else failed her she should go into business
as a hairdresser, and she had hardly completed her work, before a
message was brought from Queen Anne to desire to see Mademoiselle in
her full dress.
I do not know what would have become of me, if my good-natured royal
godmother, who never forgot anybody, had not packed me into a
carriage with some of the ladies who were accompanying Mademoiselle.
That lady had a suit of her own, and went about quite independently
of her father and her stepmother, who, though a Princess of Lorraine,
was greatly contemned and slighted by the proud heiress.
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