Part 11 (1/2)
CHAPTER VI
OF THINGS NOT EXPECTED
I
”Charlotte!” cried the King, aghast, ”what on earth is the meaning of this?”
”What is it, papa?” inquired the Princess innocently.
His Majesty shook at her the paper he had just been reading. ”You have promised a hundred pounds donation to the Anti-vivisection Society! Here it is in large headlines: 'The Princess Royal supports the Anti-vivisectionists!'”
”Well, so I do.”
”But you mustn't,” said her mother.
Princess Charlotte made a face--rather a pretty one.
”I can't help having my opinions, mamma.”
”Then you mustn't express them--not publicly.”
”If I am not to express them,” argued the Princess, ”why do you send me into public at all? Isn't laying foundation-stones and opening bazaars a public expression of opinion? Don't I go because you approve of them?”
”That is a very different matter,” said her mother. ”Good objects like those no one can possibly object to.”
”But I think anti-vivisection a good object.”
”I don't care what you think,” said her father, ”you are perfectly free to think as you like. What I want to know is--who do you suppose is going to pay that hundred pounds?”
”You are, papa.” She smiled on him sweetly.
”Indeed, your father will do nothing of the sort!” interposed the Queen, while the King was still opening his mouth in wonder at the suggestion.
”If he will only make me an allowance, he needn't,” said Charlotte; and while her parents were giving weight to that p.r.o.nouncement she went on.
”I am going to promise a hundred pounds to every deserving charity you send me to; and if you leave off sending me, I shall write and offer it.
It will be in all the papers--it will become the recognized thing--people will begin to look for it,--me and my hundred pounds. And as soon as it is the recognized thing, you know quite well, papa, that you will have to pay.”
”Why do you disapprove of vivisection?” inquired her father, finding this frontal attack unmanageable.
”Just a fellow-feeling, I suppose, through being myself a victim. Oh, I don't say there's any torture involved, but now and again mamma gives me an anesthetic, and when I wake up I find something has been done that I don't like--something vital taken off me.”
”Nonsense!” said the Queen, ”I never do anything of the kind.”
But this statement corresponded so startlingly to his Majesty's own experience that he began to pay closer attention.
”When have I done it?” demanded the Queen.