"
"Nay, why believe even thus much of me?" he interrupted with a grave
smile; "May you not be misled by that Resemblance I bear, to one who
is, in your eyes, so much my superior?"
A faint expression of offence darkened her face, and her brows
contracted.
"You are pleased to jest!" she said coldly; "As I said before, it is
man's only way of turning aside, or concluding all argument with a
woman! I am mistaken perhaps in the instinct which has led me to speak
to you as openly as I have done,--and yet,--I know in my heart I can do
you no harm by telling you the truth, as others would never tell it to
you! Many times within this last two months the people have sent in
petitions to you against the heavy taxes with which your Government is
afflicting them, and they can get no answer to their desperate appeals.
Is it kingly--is it worthy of your post as Head of this realm, to turn
a deaf ear to the cries of those whose hard-earned money keeps you on
the Throne, housed in luxury, guarded from every possible evil, and
happily ignorant of the pangs of want and hunger? How can you, if you
have a heart, permit such an iniquitous act on the part of your
Government as the setting of a tax on bread?--the all in all of life to
the very poor! Have you ever seen young children crying for bread? I
have! Have you ever seen strong men reduced to the shame of stealing
bread, to feed their wives and infants? I have! I think of it as I
stand here, surrounded by the luxury which is your daily lot,--and
knowing what I know, I would strip these satin-draped walls, and sell
everything of value around me if I possessed it, rather than know that
one woman or child starved within the city's precincts! Your Ministers
tell you there is a deficiency in the Exchequer,--but you do not ask
why, or how the deficiency arose! You do not ask whether Ministers
themselves have not been trafficking and speculating with the country's
money! For if deficiency there be, it has arisen out of the
Government's mismanagement! The Government have had the people's
money,--and have thrown it recklessly away.
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