"I do not see that," said Thelma gravely,--"if those men are ignorant, why should they have a share in so important a thing as Government? They may know all about beer, and wool, and iron,--but perhaps they can only judge what is good for themselves, not what is best for the whole country, with all its rich and poor. I do think that only the wisest scholars and most intelligent persons should be allowed to help in the ruling of a great nation."
"But the people choose their own rulers," remarked Errington reflectively.
"Ah, the poor people!" sighed Thelma. "They know so very little,--and they are taught so badly! I think they never do quite understand what they do want,--they are the same in all histories,--like little children, they get bewildered and frightened in any trouble, and the wisest heads are needed to think for them. It is, indeed, most cruel to make them puzzle out all difficulty for themselves!"
"What a little sage you are, my pet!" laughed Philip, taking her hand on which the marriage-ring and its accompanying diamond circlet, glistened brilliantly in the warm sunlight. "Do you mean to go in for politics?"
She shook her head. "No, indeed! That is not woman's work at all. The only way in which I think about such things, is that I feel the people cannot all be wise,--and that it seems a pity the wisest and greatest in the land should not be chosen to lead them rightly."
"And so under the circumstances, you think it's no use my trying to pose as a Cicero?" asked her husband amusedly. She laughed--with a very tender cadence in her laughter.
"It would not be worth your while, my boy," she said "You know I have often told you that I do not see any great distinction in being a member of Parliament at all. What will you do? You will talk to the fat brewer perhaps, and he will contradict you--then other people will get up and talk and contradict each other,--and so it will go on for days and days--meanwhile the country remains exactly as it was, neither better nor worse,--and all the talking does no good! It is better to be out of it,--here together, as we are to-day."
And she raised her dreamy blue eyes to the sheltering canopy of green leaves that overhung them--leaves thick-clustered and dewy, through which the dazzling sky peeped in radiant patches. Philip looked at her,--the rapt expression of her upward gaze,--the calm, untroubled sweetness of her fair face,--were such as might well have suited one of Raffaelle's divinest angels. His heart beat quickly--he drew closer to her, and put his arm round her.