s."

I denied it positively.

"Use your eyes," he went on; "and you will see, for example, that she is
shallow and frivolous. Yesterday was a day of rain. We were all obliged
to employ ourselves somehow indoors. Didn't you notice that she had no
resources in herself? She can't even read."

"There you are wrong at any rate," I declared. "I saw her reading the
newspaper."

"You saw her with the newspaper in her hand. If you had not been deaf
and blind to her defects, you would have noticed that she couldn't fix
her attention on it. She was always ready to join in the chatter of the
ladies about her. When even their stores of gossip were exhausted, she
let the newspaper drop on her lap, and sat in vacant idleness smiling at
nothing."

I reminded him that she might have met with a dull number of the
newspaper. He took no notice of this unanswerable reply.

"You were talking the other day of her warmth of feeling," he proceeded.
"She has plenty of sentiment (German sentiment), I grant you, but no
true feeling. What happened only this morning, when the Prince was in
the breakfast-room, and when the Princess and her ladies were dressed
to go out riding? Even she noticed the wretchedly depressed state of
her father's spirits. A man of that hypochondriacal temperament suffers
acutely, though he may only fancy himself to be ill. The Princess
overflowed with sympathy, but she never proposed to stay at home, and
try to cheer the old man. Her filial duty was performed to her own
entire satisfaction when she had kissed her hand to the Prince. The
moment after, she was out of the room--eager to enjoy her ride. We all
heard her laughing gayly among the ladies in the hall."

I could have answered this also, if our discussion had not been
interrupted at the moment. The Doctor came into the library in search of
a book. When he had left us, my colleague's strong prejudice against him
instantly declared itself.

"Be on your guard with that man," he said.

"Why?" I asked.

"Haven't you noticed," he replied, "that when the Princess is talking to
you, the Doctor always happens to be in that part of the room?"

"What does it matter where the Doctor is?"

My friend looked at me with an oddly mingled expression of doubt and
surprise. "Do you really not understand me?" he said.

"I don't indeed."

"My dear Ernest, you are a rare and admirable example to the rest of
us--you are a truly modest man."

What did he mean?

V.

EV