ld have done. Only be careful that thou art not spoilt. Care
nothing for what thou hearest here. Continue to hate and fear the devil;
for, whether he be thy own devil or the servente, he is more powerful
than thou. Say nothing but what He whom thou rightly callest God teaches
thee to say. So all will be well. Better teacher than thou my daughter
could not have. I would wish her to be pious, within reason; not like
her aunt, that would not be well. I should wish her to care for the
poor. Nothing is so gracious in noble ladies as to care for the poor.
When they cease to do this they lose tone at once. The French noblesse
have done so. I should like her to visit the poor herself. It will have
the best effect upon her nature; much better," continued the Prince with
a half smile, and seemingly speaking to himself, "much better, I should
imagine, than on the poor themselves. But what will you have?--some one
must suffer, and the final touch cannot be obtained without."

There was another pause. This aspect of the necessary suffering the poor
had to undergo was so new to Mark that he required some time to grasp
it. The visits of noble ladies to his village had not been so frequent
as to cause the malign effects to be deeply felt.

* * * * *

Acting upon this advice so far as he understood it, Mark pursued the
same system of education with the little Highnesses as he had followed
with the village children; that is, he set them to read such things as
he was told they ought to learn, and encouraged them to do so by
promising to relate his histories and tales if they were good.

It is surprising how much the same human nature remains after
generations of different breeding and culture. It is true that these
princely children had heard many tales before, perhaps the very ones the
little schoolmaster now related, yet they delighted in nothing so much
as hearing them again. Much of this pleasure, no doubt, was due to the
intense faith and interest in them shown by Mark himself. He talked to
them also much about God and the unseen world of angels, and of the
wicked one; and, as they believed firmly that he was an angel, they
listened to these things with the more ready belief. Indeed, the
affection which the little boy formed for his child-tutor was unusual.
He was a silent, solemn child; he said nothing, but he attached himself
to Mark with a persistent devotion.

Every one in the palace, indeed, to