THREE:As, during the first years of their lives, even Flicit herself could not begin to instruct them, she paid a daily visit of an hour to them, and occupied herself in writing a book on education for their use and that of her own children. She also wrote Adle et Thodore, and numbers of other books, novels, essays, plays, treatises on education, &c., which had great success.The young princes and princesses, however, in spite of the disputes, jealousies, and quarrels that occurred amongst them, agreed in amusing themselves very well together. They gave balls, theatricals and ftes of all kinds; the Queen was very fond of cards, and gambling went on to an extent which, with the money spent on ftes and in other still more reprehensible ways, especially by the Comte dArtois, though it could have passed as a matter of course under former reigns, now increased the irritation and discontent which every year grew stronger and more dangerous. For the distress amongst the lower orders was terrible; for years marriages and the birthrate had been decreasing in an alarming manner; the peasants declaring that it was no use bringing into the world children to be as miserable as themselves.
One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams
