d the splendour of his ancient dwelling and the duties of his
high station.

The doors of Stronghold, at this time, were always open, not only for
the going out of the many retainers and servants on their errands of
business and mercy and pleasure in the town, but also for the citizens
and the poor folk who came seeking employment, or demanding justice,
or asking relief for their necessities. The lord of the castle had
ordered that none should be denied, and that a special welcome should
be given to those who came with words of enlightenment and counsel, to
interpret the splendour of Stronghold and help its master to learn the
duties of his high station.

So there came many men with various words. Some told him of the days
when Stronghold was the defence of the land and the foreign foe was
broken against it. Some walked with him in the long hall of portraits
and narrated the brave deeds of his ancestors. Some explained to him
the history of the heirlooms, and showed him how each vessel of
silver and great carved chair and richly faded tapestry had a meaning
which made it precious.

Other men talked to him of the future and of the things that he ought
to do. They set forth new schemes of industry by which the castle
should be changed into a central power-house or a silk-mill. They
unfolded new plans of bounty by which the hungry should be clad, and
the naked fed, and the sick given an education. They told him that if
he would do these things, in the course of a hundred years or so all
would be well.

But the trouble was that their counsels were contradictory, and their
promises were distant, and the lord of the castle was impatient and
bewildered in mind. For meantime the manifold voices of the town went
up around him like smoke, and he knew that underneath it some fires of
trouble and sorrow must be burning.

Then came two barefaced and masterful men who told him bluntly that
the first duty of his high station was to abandon it.

"What shall I do then?" he asked.

"Work for your living," they shouted.

"What do you do for your living?" he inquired.

"We tell other men what to do," replied they.

"And do you think," said he, "that your job is any harder than mine,
or that you work more than I do?" So he gave order that they should
have a good supper and be escorted from the castle, for he had no time
to waste upon mummers.

But the confusion in his mind continued, because the spirits of his
father and his