the prince's welfare."

"Don't always talk of a prince. Promise me that you will be just as
happy, if it be a princess--"

"Just as happy! No, that were impossible. I can't control my feelings
to that extent. But this I can promise you--if you and the child are
well, I shall be happy for all."

"Well, then, let a nurse be brought:--even now, I envy her the child's
affectionate glances and hearty caresses!"

"And what is the sorrow you were complaining of?"

"The thought of depriving another child of its mother troubles my
conscience. Even if thousands have done the same thing time and time
again, he who commits a wrong, sins for himself and as deeply as if it
were the first time the sin were ever committed. Yet, I submit. But I
shall insist on one thing: the foster-mother of my child must be an
honest married woman and must belong to a respectable family. I could
never silence my conscience if I were to deprive a child, already
wretched enough, of its all--its mother! In this I am perfectly
indifferent to worldly regulations and prescribed forms. Is the poor,
forlorn child, born into a hostile world, to be robbed of the only
source of love yet left it? And even if we take an honest married
woman, we will be depriving a child of its mother and inflicting an
injury upon a being that we do not even know. Ah! how hard it is! In
spite of our knowing better, we are yet forced to commit wrong.
However, I shall submit to necessity. But the child that we take from
its mother will be cared for by her family, has a father and, perhaps,
even a kind grandmother and affectionate brothers and sisters. A
hospitable roof will shelter its infant head--"

"Your Majesty," exclaimed the doctor, with an outburst of enthusiasm,
"at this very moment prayers are being offered up for you in thousands
of churches, and myriad voices are saying: 'Amen'!"

"Great God, what duties are thus imposed! One had needs be more than
human to bear the charge--it crushes me to the earth."

"It should elevate instead of depressing you. At this very moment the
breath issuing from millions of lips forms a cloud that supports you.
True humanity is best shown when those who are prosperous and happy and
therefore need no assistance from others, protect the suffering instead
of putting them away from them. The effect of such a mood upon the
child whose heart throbs beneath that of its mother is one of nature's
mysteries. This child must needs become a noble,