The Keepers of the People

872At the end of the pass they rested for a while at the mouth of the last gorge, and the plains of Varandaleel stretched away before their eyes, clear in the intense, silver blaze of the risen moon, until they were lost to sight in the blue shadow.

873The heart of the Princess Agnes filled; her eyes glimmered moist in the white light; she stretched out her hands, and with a great gasp said, “O beautiful land — what a work lies before me — to bring to your women the good tidings of Progress and Culture! There is as much as I can do.”

874“There is more than you can do,” said Prince Ralph; and he smiled the disquieting smile of the man who knows things.

875Her face filled with enthusiasm, and she cried, “Ah, but you will help me to devote my life to so glorious a cause! I will teach a few at first, and send them forth to teach others, until I am queen of a nation of free women, equal with the men, which shall put the European people to shame.”

876“The Varandal proverb runs, ‘The maiden would go forth with the warriors to conquer, but the mother will keep to the home,” said Prince Ralph.

877“The time has gone by for a woman to waste her life on her children,” said the Princess hotly.

878“It is not wasted. But come, my father waits, and my mother is looking for me,” said Prince Ralph gently; and his cold voice chilled her hopes.

879An easy path brought them quickly to the plain; the cedar chest was laid in a horse-litter; and they set their horses to a fast canter along a broad highway by the side of which ran a turf path of equal breadth for horsemen. They rode, without drawing rein, through belts of wood and two large villages, dark and silent, towards a blur of light in the sky which the Princess Agnes thought the reflection of the lights of a town. But from a mile or two away she saw that it came from a great building, all its windows lighted, and a beacon blazing high on its central tower. The last half-mile was steep, and at the top they passed between great gates in a high wall, and came into the courtyard of a palace. Prince Ralph lifted her from her horse before a doorway in the left wing, saying, “This is the wing of the Princesses, where you will lodge with my mother.”