nsider deeply,
and then whispered to those about him, "This ought to be read to me by a
Privy Councillor."

CHAPTER IX. OLD AGE

I

Meanwhile in Victoria's private life many changes and developments had
taken place. With the marriages of her elder children her family
circle widened; grandchildren appeared; and a multitude of new domestic
interests sprang up. The death of King Leopold in 1865 had removed the
predominant figure of the older generation, and the functions he had
performed as the centre and adviser of a large group of relatives in
Germany and in England devolved upon Victoria. These functions
she discharged with unremitting industry, carrying on an enormous
correspondence, and following with absorbed interest every detail in the
lives of the ever-ramifying cousinhood. And she tasted to the full
both the joys and the pains of family affection. She took a particular
delight in her grandchildren, to whom she showed an indulgence which
their parents had not always enjoyed, though, even to her grandchildren,
she could be, when the occasion demanded it, severe. The eldest of them,
the little Prince Wilhelm of Prussia, was a remarkably headstrong child;
he dared to be impertinent even to his grandmother; and once, when she
told him to bow to a visitor at Osborne, he disobeyed her outright.
This would not do: the order was sternly repeated, and the naughty boy,
noticing that his grandmama had suddenly turned into a most terrifying
lady, submitted his will to hers, and bowed very low indeed.

It would have been well if all the Queen's domestic troubles could
have been got over as easily. Among her more serious distresses was the
conduct of the Prince of Wales. The young man was now independent and
married; he had shaken the parental yoke from his shoulders; he was
positively beginning to do as he liked. Victoria was much perturbed,
and her worst fears seemed to be justified when in 1870 he appeared as
a witness in a society divorce case. It was clear that the heir to the
throne had been mixing with people of whom she did not at all approve.
What was to be done? She saw that it was not only her son that was to
blame--that it was the whole system of society; and so she despatched
a letter to Mr. Delane, the editor of The Times, asking him if he would
"frequently WRITE articles pointing out the IMMENSE danger and evil of
the wretched frivolity and levity of the views and lives of the Higher
Classes." And five y