The lesson began with a review of the alphabet; then came a struggle with the mysterious _b-a, b-e, b-i, b-o, b-u, b-y_, "which we did not quite conquer," the tutor regretfully writes. Mr. Davys kept a journal of the progress of the Princess during the first two years of his instruction, and he records gravely after the second lesson that she pronounced _much_ as _muts_, that he did not succeed in teaching her to count as far as five, and that when he tried to show her how to make an _o_, he could not make her move her hand in the right direction. It seems to have been a somewhat willful little hand, for a week later when he wished her to make an _h_, she would make nothing but _o's._ "If you will make _h_ to-day," said the patient tutor, "you shall have a copy of _o's_ to-morrow;" but when to-morrow had come and the copy had been prepared, the capricious little maiden did not care to make _o_, she preferred to make _h_.
The troubled instructor tried various plans to interest his small charge. He wrote short words on cards and asked her to bring them to him from another part of the room as he named them. He read her stories and nursery rhymes, and one day, when he seems to have been almost at his wit's end, he persuaded the Princess Féodore and her governess to stand with his little pupil and recite as if they were in a class at school. His report for that day records with a good deal of satisfaction, "This seemed to please her." Willful as she was, however, she was very tender-hearted, and when he asked her to spell the word _bad_, she sobbed and cried, because she fancied that he was applying it to herself.
When Mr. Davys came in the morning, he would frequently inquire if she had been good. One day he asked the Duchess:
"Was the Princess good while she was in the nursery?"
"She was good this morning," replied her mother, "but yesterday there was quite a little storm."
"Yes, mamma," added the honest little girl, "there were two storms, one when I was washed and another when I was dressed."
Sometimes her honesty put her mother into a difficult position. One day the Duchess said:
"Victoria, when you are naughty you make both me and yourself very unhappy."
"No, mamma," the child replied, "not me, but you."