CHAPTER XXII.
It was gratifying to know that the society had been kept up all these years by the industry of the people, although it could not be claimed that any one system could have done it alone, and it had been recognized that the honors conferred upon the deserving had a great deal to do with the success. It brought together larger numbers of the better class than could have been done under any other system. Those who came into the ranks supplied with money enough to last them their life time were not able to receive even the title of “Honorable” unless his or her life was truthful and honest in their dealings with the public. Brave deeds were not ignored because those who accomplished them were only ordinary people. Each member who lived a self-denying life to better the whole people was honored publicly, and by so doing the world was made better for such acts. All could not gain the highest titles, but all could be “Honorables.” Only the honorables could make the laws that governed.
The society had princes and princesses simply because these people had lived princely lives. Some of them had brought to the society large fortunes in money, land, mines and jewels. They gave their wealth to promote the welfare of the whole community, keeping, in many instances, only the amount the society compelled each to hold during their life. Still their money could not buy for them even the smallest title. What then? Labor, for all holding titles had to honor labor in some way. This is the way one princess gained hers:
Princess Lovechild was the daughter of a man who had been disinherited by his father for marrying against his wishes. His father sent him adrift without money enough to keep him a year. He had no profession, so he went to the mining district of a new country, and was given employment overseeing miners. In this way they got along for several years. A child had been born to them the second year. She was the pet of the camp and considered their mascot. Every time a large find of gold was discovered, she was given a share, the father investing, besides buying several for himself. One day a great grief came to the mother and child; the father was killed. They had to leave the camp, it not being safe for them to remain. The kind-hearted men gave them gifts to take on their journey as well as buying the claims. The mother took the child to a city to find employment. Before she was successful, her money had been spent. She tried among her friends, but they were unable to help her; then she got cooking to do, but that separated her from her child. She then obtained a place as housekeeper, even doing the hardest work to keep her little girl with her. It was not long before the man who employed her gave her to understand that he expected more from her than she was willing to give, so she was obliged to leave and live in a noisy district that racked her nerves because those who had nice houses refused to take children. In time her money was gone again and she had no friends who would help her. One day when the child was about six years old the mother became ill and died.
The child was placed in an orphans’ home, and then given to a woman who used her as a little drudge. It was hard to have no mother to love her, no pretty clothing, but she could love the baby that she had to mind andher poor little love nature had all gone out to that baby, even when it had grown older and would abuse her until she cried with pain, she still loved it. The husband in this home died, and again she was homeless.
She was at the age of thirteen then and had taken a place as nurse, when one day she had been called into the breakfast room to answer some questions about her name and her father, by the master who was reading the morning papers. After a day or two she was startled to find that she was expected to show a new nurse where to find all the things belonging to the baby and children; then she was told that in the future she was to be one of the family and was asked how she would like to go to school. It had been her secret ambition; she studied hard and was admitted to one of the best colleges. At the age of twenty she was home again, or rather the place she had learned to look upon as home and still did not know why these people had so suddenly changed toward her. One day she was reading the paper and saw her mother’s name. She had often read over her marriage certificate and found it was the name advertised for. She had often wondered why she had to sign a paper for the allowance which they were giving her; it seemed strange. She answered the advertisement, however, and discovered that her mother had fallen heir to a fortune which became hers. Instead of these people rejoicing with her, as she had expected, they were angry. They said many things about ingratitude that made her feel so uncomfortable that she left them. Her lawyer discovered that she had had a larger fortune left her by her grandfather years before, she being the only direct heir on her father’s side. Suitors and friends sprung up like mushrooms, but the man she loved died. Life lost all interest for her then in a personal way. She could never forget the povertyshe and her mother had suffered. She was watching to see what she could do with the money that had come too late to be of use to the parents who had needed it so much.
Then she heard about the society. She said, “What a good thing that must be.”
Then she donned plain clothes and went to work in the worst paid places she could find, just to learn the histories of the women who were forced to work in such places. This is how she gained the title (she worked for a cause). As is the case with so many who are already rich, the mines that had been theirs had not been sold according to law. Now all this money had come to her without any effort on her part. She had merely inherited it, so she determined that it should do the most good to the largest number of people.
She had become acquainted with Scoris, Helen, Tom and the rest of the family, and was given the name of “Princess” because the people among whom she had worked had always spoken of her as “The Princess Lovechild.” A little girl once asked her name and she replied, “Love, child,” not intending that her name should be known, but the child said it was Lovechild, and all thinking the name appropriate, it clung to her.
She was now past thirty years of age. Always finding out where her money was needed the most, she gave freely. She had given it for factories, to help along the exchanges, to buy shares for the old who were unable to do for themselves. She used it to place hundreds of children in the society until they were old enough to earn their own living. The society said the name of “Princess” was none too good for her, for she had given in return the love of her very being. Some brought theirjewels to her to be set in her crown that she wore on coronation days.
She was not the only princess by any means, but they all had to earn their titles.
One day she had been going the rounds to find the deserving who could be brought into the society, when she heard a child crying bitterly at a window. She walked slowly past and smiled. The little fellow looked at her and then called out, “I am all alone and it is getting so dark. Oh! I am afraid; and the door is locked. Won’t you stay here until mamma comes?” She did so and what was her surprise to hear the child say that his name was “Freddie Moberly.” Then he looked around and said, “No, it is Freddie Smith. I forgot.” She questioned him and found he was the child who had been lost for nearly two years. She told him not to be frightened that she would stay until his “mamma,” as he called the woman, returned. In a moment or two she came, and as the child drew back into the room, the Princess walked on, but no sooner had the door closed than she returned and rang the bell. As Mrs. Smith appeared, she asked to be allowed to go in as she wished to talk to her. The child was sent out of the room and the Princess started at once on the subject for which she had called. In a short time, Mrs. Smith told her if Mrs. Moberly would get a divorce from her husband that she could have the child. “He was a wreck from drinking and I nursed him back to life. We were attracted to each other and when he afterwards told me he was married and his wife would not live with him, I was sorry for him. I knew at once that it was drink, and I also knew that if left to himself he would be as bad as ever, for I could stop him from drinking. Well, you see the result. He will support himself and me, but he wouldn’t keep soberlong enough, even if she would live with him, to support his wife. Now I am not all bad, as she thinks I am. I am sorry that we have the child; I don’t want to take him from his mother, and I certainly didn’t take her husband from her, as the papers said. You see we know all about it. It is not a case of kidnaping, either, for the law has never given her the child and she cannot get him until she secures a divorce. I cannot see my mother until I am his lawful wife. Now, madam, you see how it is.”
The Princess had never known such a case before. That woman did not seem to be a thoroughly bad woman and there was evidently something in the man to make it worth her while to stick to him. His selfishness and drinking had embittered the whole of his wife’s early life and shadowed the childhood of his children as well as leaving them dependent.
The next day the Princess drove to the Colony. She saw Tom Vivian and talked over what was to be done. They sent for Mira and told her.
Shortly after Tom called at the house where the child had been found by the Princess, but as he expected, they had gone.