he became almost as unknown to her subjects
as some potentate of the East. They might murmur, but they did not
understand. What had she to do with empty shows and vain enjoyments? No!
She was absorbed by very different preoccupations. She was the devoted
guardian of a sacred trust. Her place was in the inmost shrine of the
house of mourning--where she alone had the right to enter, where she
could feel the effluence of a mysterious presence, and interpret,
however faintly and feebly, the promptings of a still living soul. That,
and that only was her glorious, her terrible duty. For terrible indeed
it was. As the years passed her depression seemed to deepen and her
loneliness to grow more intense. "I am on a dreary sad pinnacle of
solitary grandeur," she said. Again and again she felt that she could
bear her situation no longer--that she would sink under the strain. And
then, instantly, that Voice spoke: and she braced herself once more to
perform, with minute conscientiousness, her grim and holy task.

Above all else, what she had to do was to make her own the
master-impulse of Albert's life--she must work, as he had worked, in the
service of the country. That vast burden of toil which he had taken upon
his shoulders it was now for her to bear. She assumed the gigantic
load; and naturally she staggered under it. While he had lived, she had
worked, indeed, with regularity and conscientiousness; but it was work
made easy, made delicious, by his care, his forethought, his advice,
and his infallibility. The mere sound of his voice, asking her to sign
a paper, had thrilled her; in such a presence she could have laboured
gladly for ever. But now there was a hideous change. Now there were no
neat piles and docketings under the green lamp; now there were no simple
explanations of difficult matters; now there was nobody to tell her what
was right and what was wrong. She had her secretaries, no doubt: there
were Sir Charles Phipps, and General Grey, and Sir Thomas Biddulph; and
they did their best. But they were mere subordinates: the whole weight
of initiative and responsibility rested upon her alone. For so it had to
be. "I am DETERMINED"--had she not declared it?--"that NO ONE person is
to lead or guide or dictate to ME;" anything else would be a betrayal of
her trust. She would follow the Prince in all things. He had refused to
delegate authority; he had examined into every detail with his own eyes;
he had made it a rule never