A baby's cries came from the bedroom.
Joseph motioned for Talleyrand to wait a moment, then turned and went inside.
Mm, little Mishu had pooped...
Both wet nurses' eyes lit up, and they pounced toward the cradle like starving wolves fighting over food.
Madame Cloutier was clearly the more skilled of the two. She maintained her walking posture in accordance with court etiquette the entire way, yet still reached the swaddling clothes before Madame Lessard, who had broken into a trot.
The "champion," wearing a smug smile, opened the safety pin on the oil-soaked silk outer layer of the diaper with extremely practiced movements, then removed the fine flax inner layer smeared with brown paste. Before the stink could spread, she folded it in half with lightning speed and stuffed it into the bag the maid was holding. After that came washing, dusting Wheat flour over Michel's little bottom, rubbing on almond oil, laying in a fresh diaper liner, wrapping the silk outer layer around it, and finally fastening it with a pin.
Before Joseph had even reached the cradle, the Little Prince had already started sucking his thumb and fallen asleep again.
Joseph was so astonished by Madame Cloutier's dazzling movements that he secretly gave her a thumbs-up, thinking that even with disposable diapers from later generations, he might not have been faster than her.
At that thought, he could not help freezing for a moment. Mm, how had he forgotten to make diapers before?
Disposable diapers, of course, were not for little Mishu—as high-end as a disposable diaper might be, it could never be more comfortable against the bottom than a top-grade fine flax-and-flannel diaper—but this thing had one enormous advantage: it was consumed quickly.
No matter how expensive flax diapers were, four or five prepared for one