"Would you not say, ma'am, your Republican Party was a menace to the state?"
"They don't know what is good, poor souls." Her voice was gentle. "They will have to learn."
"Will the King be the means of teaching them?"
"Hélas! he is too old. It must be left to fate. Poor souls, poor souls!"
During the sojourn of her Royal Highness at Dympsfield House, we saw a good deal of the Chief Constable of our county. In a sense he had made himself responsible for the safety of us all. His vigilance was great, and its unobtrusiveness was part of the man. No precaution was neglected which could minister to our security; and he gave his personal attention to matters of detail which less thorough-going individuals might have considered to be beneath their notice.
He was particularly insistent that the Princess should give up her hunting, and that she should confine the scope of her activities, as far as possible, to the grounds of the house. To this she was not in the least amenable. An out-and-out believer in fate, and a subscriber to the doctrine of what has to be will be, the bullets of the anarchist had no terrors for her. To Coverdale's annoyance, she continued to hunt in spite of his solemn and repeated warnings. And when he was moved to remonstrate with Fitz upon the subject, he met with the reply, "She pleases herself entirely."
"But, my dear fellow," said the Chief Constable, "surely you must know that she is exposing herself to grave risks."
"If a thing seems good to her she does it," was Fitz's unprofitable rejoinder.
The great man was frankly annoyed.
"That is very wrong, to my mind," he said with some heat. "It is unfair to those who have made themselves responsible for her safety."