She could read without great difficulty, and had spelled her way
through several Church legends and almost all the chivalric
wonders of the Heldenbuch. She had even made considerable
proficiency in writing; could sign her own name without missing a
letter, and so legibly that her aunts could read it without
spectacles. She excelled in making little elegant
good-for-nothing, lady-like knicknacks of all kinds, was versed
in the most abstruse dancing of the day, played a number of airs
on the harp and guitar, and knew all the tender ballads of the
Minnelieders by heart.
Her aunts, too, having been great flirts and coquettes in their
younger days, were admirably calculated to be vigilant guardians
and strict censors of the conduct of their niece; for there is no
duenna so rigidly prudent and inexorably decorous as a
superannuated coquette. She was rarely suffered out of their
sight; never went beyond the domains of the castle unless well
attended, or rather well watched; had continual lectures read to
her about strict decorum and implicit obedience; and, as to the
men--pah!--she was taught to hold them at such a distance and in
such absolute distrust that, unless properly authorized, she
would not have cast a glance upon the handsomest cavalier in the
world--no, not if he were even dying at her feet.
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