The Keepers of the People

1278“I think — I think — that my affection for mamma must be founded on a purely intellectual basis,” said Althea demurely. “Besides, I have so many things to do.”

1279Lord Lisdor laughed, and said to the frowning Princess Agnes, “There you have it. That’s how your intellectual affection works out. It doesn’t wear.”

1280“Is this — this — intellectual affection one of the shadows at which you Westerns grasp?” said the old Prince.

1281“Not all of us, not all of us” said Lord Lisdor, with a laugh. “There’s very little nonsense about some of us.”

1282“Well, that is good hearing,” said the old Prince smiling. “I have grown to think you were all hag-ridden fools together.”

1283He was past politeness to his son’s wife. “All the same, Prince Ralph, your notion of thinning the people of five or six thousand fighting-men, because they are too close on the ground, seems to me a bit thick,” said Lord Lisdor.

1284“Again that disgraceful inhumanity!” cried the Princess Agnes; and Althea frowned at her.

1285“You certainly don’t seem to set much value on human life,” said Lord Lisdor.

1286“Why should I?” said Prince Ralph simply. “If you had human feelings; if you were not as cold-blooded as a butcher, you would never ask such a question!” cried the Princess Agnes, who wished to make it clear to these English friends that nothing in Varandaleel had her sympathy.

1287Prince Ralph looked at her with unchanging face, and said slowly, “I can afford no luxury of sentimental softness, if I would keep the people.”

1288“I knew you would say that!” cried the Princess Agnes. “Merely that you may act upon your odious, hateful, cruel principles, you do not care how much precious human blood may be shed! You do not care if you deliberately plunge a whole people into mourning!”

1289“I may not care: it is expedient,” said Prince Ralph.

1290Ruth had been listening thoughtfully, weighing their words, and she said, “I thought that the worst of war was that it cut off the flower of a people, that the bravest and strongest men fell in it. That surely makes it bad for the people.”

1291“You are a wise woman. You keep to the good of the people; that is the heart of the matter,” said the old Prince; and Ruth flushed at his praise.

1292“I thought of that,” said Prince Ralph. “And I have seen to it. I fight the enemy with the worse regiments. The flower of the people only come into the fight at the end, to crush them. They will not move from their camp till I have lost my six thousand men, and the Russians nearly three thousand. So I only lose from the worse. And after all, even those who die will die happy. How indeed, should they die happier than fighting for their country, Varandals for Varandaleel?”