" After some moments she
resumed, with a sort of quaint solemnity: "Now many a child would boast,
not knowing the difficulty. There is much splendor, but there is also
much responsibility." "The Princess," says the Baroness, "having lifted
up the forefinger of her right hand while she spoke, now gave me that
little hand, saying: 'I will be good. I understand now why you urged me
so much to learn, even Latin. My aunts, Augusta and Mary, never did, but
you told me Latin was the foundation of English grammar, and all the
elegant expressions, and I learned it, as you wished it; but I understand
all better now,' and the Princess again gave me her hand, repeating, 'I
will be good.'"
God heard the promise of the child of twelve years and held her to it,
and has given her strength "as her day" to redeem it, all through the
dazzling brightness and the depressing shadows, through the glory and the
sorrow of her life, as a Queen and a woman.
The Queen says that she "cried much" over the magnificent but difficult
problem of her destiny, but the tears must have been April showers, for
in those days she was accounted a bright, care-free little damsel, and
was ever welcome as a sunbeam in the noblest houses of England--such as
Eaton Hall, the seat of the Duke of Westminster; Wentworth House,
belonging to Earl Fitzwilliam; Alton Towers, the country house of the
Earl of Shrewsbury; and Chatsworth, the palace of the Duke of Devonshire,
where such royal loyal honors were paid to her that she had a foretaste
of the "splendor," without the "responsibility," of Queenhood.
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