r like them. We are all equal...."

"You are a simple farmer," Prince Herman echoed, "yet you live in a
castle."

"No, young man," replied Zanti, "I do not live in a castle; I live
_here_; my daughter lives there by herself. She is ill.... She would not
be able to stand an alteration in her mode of life, or any deprivation.
But she will not live long...."

He glanced up, looked at the Princes alternately, askance, almost
anxiously:

"She is my only weakness, I think," he said, in a faint, deprecating
voice. "She is my sin; I have called in doctors for her and believe in
what they say and prescribe. You see, she would not be able to do it ...
to follow me in all things, for she has too much of the past in her poor
blood. For her, a castle and comfort are necessities, vital necessities.
Therefore I leave her there.... But she will not live long.... And then
I shall sell it and divide the money, every penny of it, among them
all.... You see, that is my weakness, my sin; I am only human...."

The princes saw him display emotion; his hands trembled. Then he seemed
to feel that he had already spoken to them too much and too long of what
lay nearest to his heart, his sin. And he pointed to the buildings,
explained their uses....

"I have read some of your pamphlets, Mr. Zanti," said the crown-prince.
"Do you apply your ideas on matrimony here?"

"I apply nothing," the grey-beard growled, resuming his tone of
contradiction. "I leave them free to do as they please. If they wish to
get married according to your law, they can; but, if they come to me, I
bless them and let them go in peace, for it is written, 'Again I say to
you, that if two of you shall consent upon earth, concerning any thing
whatsoever they shall ask, it shall be done for them by my father who is
in heaven. For where there are two or three gathered together in my
name, there am I in the midst of them.'"

"And how do you rule so many followers?" asked Herman.

"I don't rule them, sir!" roared the old man, clenching his fists, his
face red with fury. "I am no more than any of them. The father has
authority in his own household and the old men give advice, because they
have experience: that is all. Life is so simple...."

"As you picture it, but not in reality," objected Herman.

Zanti looked at him angrily, stopped still, to be able to talk with
greater ease, and, passionately, violently, exclaimed:

"And do you in reality find it better than I pictu