The Keepers of the People

CHAPTER V

THE TRAINING OF ALTHEA

986Althea found her life full, and pleasant. As he had promised her, much of her day was spent with Prince Ralph: she made her morning and midday meals with him; when she tired of the gardens, she would come to the council-chamber, where an ivory couch was set for her, and lie, fanned by her maids, listening idly to his talk to the head-men beyond the curtain. Now and again he would break into English, and tell her anything they were discussing that might interest her. When the old Prince was with him, she would lie longer, for they debated any difficult matter in English; and when with Colonel Sayers they set about perfecting the army, she came oftener still, and listened to them while, with a map of Varandaleel before them, they deliberated how many men should be chosen from a district, or where granaries should be built to supply most conveniently with corn an army in the field. The old Prince, and Colonel Sayers made much of her. Whenever she wished to talk, and Prince Ralph was not at leisure, she would go to the chambers above the great hall, sure of a smile of welcome from the old Prince, and from the beautiful Mistress of the Mutes; while Colonel Sayers was soon teaching her to ride, and, at the suggestion of Prince Ralph, to fence.

987In the beginning she was no more to Prince Ralph than a beautiful plaything; her beautiful presence, a perpetual refreshment, whether she would talk or be silent, ravished him from the oppression of his labours. He even began, aided by Vashti, to spend thought and pains on setting forth her beauty in the finest fashion, and furnished for her three chambers above his own with golden hangings, and ornaments, as its most fitting frame. But little by little she grew his familiar. Living only with her elders, with men, for Prince Ralph, knowing that his wife would cry out at her abduction, did not as yet bring her to the great hall in the evenings, her intelligence, already lively, developed apace. From hearing always the affairs of the Varandals, she began to learn much of the ruling of the country, and little by little fell into the way of talking of it to Prince Ralph. Then he gave her the Books of the Wisdom of the Princes, thinking that the adventures and stories told in them would amuse her; and they furnished further subjects for her talk with him, and the old Prince, and Colonel Sayers. It came about that her intercourse with the three of them was forming her mind in a virile mould curious in so young a child, a girl; and the old Prince suggested to his son that in gratifying a kindly whim, he had chanced on a spirit that was training to be his helpmeet, and the fitting Princess of Varandaleel.