t at all if suddenly the river were
to give up its trick of freezing, and were to remain always as fluent
as our own monotonous Thames. There seems to him some reason to fear
that the tongues of the people would become frozen as the river ceased
to freeze.

Like the freezing and the melting of their river to those who lived on
its bank was the annual visit of the ladies of the ducal family to the
womankind of Keeton in Keeton's brighter days. Girls were growing up
there now who had never seen a duchess. The arrival, the length of
stay, the probable time of departure, the appearances in public whether
more or less frequent than this time last year, the dresses worn by the
gracious ladies, the persons spoken to by them, the persons only bowed
to, the unhappy creatures who got neither speech nor salutation--it is
a fact that there was a generation of women growing up in Keeton with
whom these and such questions had never formed any part of the interest
of their lives. They could not be expected to take much interest all at
once, and as it were by instinct, in the political cause of the ducal
family.

There was therefore a good deal of uncertainty about the conditions of
the problem. The followers of the ducal family were some of them full
of hope. The reappearance of a duke and duchess and their train might
do wonders in restoring the old order of things. In Keeton petticoat
influence counted for a great deal, and in other days those who had the
promises of the wives hardly thought it worth while to go through the
form of asking the husbands. But now there was a new condition of the
political problem even in that respect. The ballot, which had made the
voter independent of the influence of his landlord or his wealthy
customer, had converted the power of the petticoat into a sort of
unknown quantity. There could be little doubt that the moral influence
and the traditional control would still prevail with some; but he must
be a rash electioneering agent who would venture to say how many votes
could thus be counted on. It is a remarkable tribute to the moral
greatness of an aristocracy that the influence thus obtained in old
days over the wives and daughters of Keeton was absolutely unearned by
any overt acts of favor or conciliation. The later dukes and their
families had always been remarkable for never making any advances
toward the townspeople. None of the traders of the town, however
wealthy and respectable, found them