and live with us."



THE MIRROR

BY CATULLE MENDES


There was once a kingdom where mirrors were unknown. They had all been
broken and reduced to fragments by order of the queen, and if the tiniest
bit of looking-glass had been found in any house, she would not have
hesitated to put all the inmates to death with the most frightful
tortures.

Now for the secret of this extraordinary caprice. The queen was dreadfully
ugly, and she did not wish to be exposed to the risk of meeting her own
image; and, knowing herself to be hideous, it was a consolation to know
that other women at least could not see that they were pretty.

You may imagine that the young girls of the country were not at all
satisfied. What was the use of being beautiful if you could not admire
yourself?

They might have used the brooks and lakes for mirrors; but the queen had
foreseen that, and had hidden all of them under closely joined flagstones.
Water was drawn from wells so deep that it was impossible to see the
liquid surface, and shallow basins must be used instead of buckets,
because in the latter there might be reflections.