am not happy."

The boy looked at her as though his heart would break.

"Not happy," he said in a low voice, "and you so good."

"The good are not happy," said the Princess, "and the happy are not
good."

There was a pause; then the Princess went on:

"The people who are with me are good, but they are not happy. They have
left the world and its pleasures, but they regret them; they live in the
perpetual consciousness of this self-denial--this fancy that they are
serving God better than others are; they are in danger of becoming
jealous and hypocritical. I warn you never to join a particular society
which proposes, as its object, to serve God better than others. You are
safer, more in the way of serving God in the palace, even amid the
singing and the music which seems to you so wicked. They are happy; they
are thoughtless, gay, like the birds. They have at least no dark gloomy
thoughts of God, even if they have no thoughts of Him at all. They may
be won to Him, nay, they may be nearer to Him now than some who think
themselves so good. Since I began this way of life I have heard of many
such societies, which have crumbled into the dust with derision, and are
remembered only with reproach."

Mark stood gazing at the distant forest without seeing it. He did not
know what to think.

"I do not know why I have told you this," said the Princess; "I had no
thought of saying such words when I brought you here. I seem to have
spoken them without willing it. Perhaps it was the will of God."

"Why do you go on with this life," said Mark sadly, "if it be not good?
The Prince would be glad if you would come back to the palace. He has
told me so."

It seemed to the boy that life grew more and more sad. It seemed that,
baffled and turned back at every turn, there was no reality, no sincere
walk anywhere possible. The worse seemed everywhere the better, the
children of this world everywhere wiser than the children of light.

"I cannot go back now," said the Princess. "When you are gone I shall
forget this; I shall think otherwise. There is something in your look
that has made me speak like this."

"Then are these people really not happy?" said Mark again.

"Why should they be happy?" said the Princess, with some bitterness in
her voice. "They have given up all that makes life pleasant--fine
clothes, delicate food, cunning harmonies, love, gay devices, and
sports. Why should they be happy? They have dull work, none to amuse