e the ways and the growth of the emperor
my brother, and teach him how best to maintain himself in a deportment
befitting his high estate, so that he may become a wise and just
ruler; but do thou bear sway for him until such time as he may take the
guidance on himself."

"Nay, not so, Princess," the old prefect said. "She who can shape the
ways of a boy may guide the will of an empire. Be thou, then, Regent and
Augusta, and rule this empire as becometh the daughter of Arcadius and
the granddaughter of the great Theodosius."

And as he desired, so it was decided. The Senate of the East decreed
it and, in long procession, over flower-strewn pavements and through
gorgeously decorated streets, with the trumpets sounding their loudest,
with swaying standards, and rank upon rank of imperial troops, with
great officers of the government and throngs of palace attendants,
this young girl of sixteen, on the fourth day of July, in the year 414,
proceeded to the Church of the Holy Apostles, and was there publicly
proclaimed Pulcheria Augusta, Regent of the East, solemnly accepting the
trust as a sacred and patriotic duty.

And, not many days after, before the high altar of this same Church
of the Holy Apostles, Pulcheria the princess stood with her younger
sisters, Arcadia and Marina, and with all the impressive ceremonial
of the Eastern Church, made a solemn vow to devote their lives to the
keeping of their father's heritage and the assistance of their only
brother; to forswear the world and all its allurements; never to marry;
and to be in all things faithful and constant to each other in this
their promise and their pledge.

And they were faithful and constant. The story of those three determined
young maidens, yet scarcely "in their teens," reads almost like a page
from Tennyson's beautiful poem, "The Princess," with which many of my
girl readers are doubtless familiar. The young regent and her sisters,
with their train of attendant maidens, renounced the vanity of
dress--wearing only plain and simple robes; they spent their time
in making garments for the poor, and embroidered work for church
decorations; and with song and prayer and frugal meals, interspersed
with frequent fasts, they kept their vow to "forswear the world and its
allurements," in an altogether strict and monotonous manner. Of course
this style of living is no more to be recommended to healthy,
hearty, fun-loving girls of fifteen than is its extreme of gay