220 LADY BLOOMFIELD. other day. I am left entirely to myself, and can employ my time as I like." But this was far from being the opinion of Lady Ravens worth, the mother of the young lady. When her daughter received her appointment as maid-of-honor, she wrote her a long and very affectionate letter of advice ; and if any reader should ever be appointed maid-of-honor to a queen, she could not do better than to study this remarkable epistle. She tells her daughter that her chief duty should be to please the queen ; not by base flattery or servile cringing, but by the most assiduous attention to her desires, even in the merest trifles, and by the most exact and cheerful obedience to every command. " You must accustom yourself," her mother wrote, " to sit or stand for hours without any amusement save the resources of your own thoughts, and your natural good sense will show you that the least rudeness of manner or appearance of fatigue is incompatible with high breeding, and the respect due to the sovereign." She enjoins it upon her daughter also to keep whatever she saw, or heard, or thought entirely to herself, to avoid " all idle gossip about dress, balls, and lovers," to avoid showy and expensive dress, to beware of the least appear- ance of flirtation with any of the gentlemen about the court, to be invariably considerate of her servants, to pur- sue her studies with regularity, and practice her music and drawing, just "as she would at home." She advises her to spend half her salary in clothes, a quarter in charity and journeys, and to save the other hundred to be invested at three per cent., " as a little nest egg for any future emergency." This letter gives an interesting insight into many things. It is a curious mixture of fervent piety and worldly wisdom. " To your companions," says this mother of two maids-
