The Keepers of the People

959Amid these toils his sojourn in the West was growing fainter and fainter in his mind, a dream in which Ruth was the only figure instinct with an abiding life; and the Princess Agnes was the only assurance that it had been a reality. For a while all had gone well with her: she had filled her days with her passion for Prince Ralph, with dreams, with talk with the old Princess; and was satisfied to express her aspirations when they all met at dinner in the great hall. But when her passion for Prince Ralph waned, in the natural physical course, from its height, she began to grow weary of the dulness of her life. For her it was indeed empty; she had been used to a life filled with a thousand diversions, visits, dinners, dances; with a thousand acquaintances, to whom she talked of the trifles and questions of the day. She had been used to being a person of importance on whose lips men hung: here her passion for power, the strongest passion of her nature, found no expression. The Princes listened to her views patiently and politely indeed; but showed no approval of them, no desire to put them into effect. She complained to Prince Ralph of the emptiness of her life, and said that the time had come to help him to rule. He heard her, and on his invitation she came three days to the council-chamber; he explained to her the reports of the head-men, and the matters to be dealt with. She had no mind for such matters: she did not know that ruling is for the most part a perpetual consideration of details; and it seemed to her wasting time on trifles unworthy of the attention of Princes. She came no more; and devoted some time to drawing up a scheme which gave to her complete control of the Varandal women, and contained provisions for what she called their political amelioration: the first of these was that women should be elected to the village councils in equal numbers with the men. It kept her busy for a while; but when she submitted it to Prince Ralph, he would not hear of setting about its execution. He said that in the first place the women did not want any such functions, they were happy without them; that in the second place they could not discharge them, if they had them. Then she proposed a scheme for educating them up to the discharge of such functions, and proposed to superintend its execution herself. He refused point blank to allow it, and she reproached him bitterly, saying that he was not fulfilling his promise of letting her aid him in ruling. He said that he had made no such promise; but that if she desired to help him, she might learn the methods of administration, and make suggestions on matters of detail. She refused very scornfully to do this, and was sullen for days.