evolution."

"You speak strangely for a red," said Otto.

"A red republican, but not a revolutionary," returned the Doctor. "An
ugly thing is a Gruenewalder drunk! One man alone can save the country
from this pass, and that is the double-dealer Gondremark, with whom I
conjure you to make peace. It will not be you; it never can be
you:--you, who can do nothing, as your wife said, but trade upon your
station--you, who spent the hours in begging money! And in God's name,
what for? Why money? What mystery of idiocy was this?"

"It was to no ill end. It was to buy a farm," quoth Otto sulkily.

"To buy a farm!" cried Gotthold. "Buy a farm!"

"Well, what then?" returned Otto. "I have bought it, if you come to
that."

Gotthold fairly bounded on his seat. "And how that?" he cried.

"How?" repeated Otto, startled.

"Ay, verily, how!" returned the Doctor. "How came you by the money?"

The Prince's countenance darkened. "That is my affair," said he.

"You see you are ashamed," retorted Gotthold. "And so you bought a farm
in the hour of your country's need--doubtless to be ready for the
abdication; and I put it that you stole the funds. There are not three
ways of getting money: there are but two: to earn and steal. And now,
when you have combined Charles the Fifth and Long-fingered Tom, you come
to me to fortify your vanity! But I will clear my mind upon this matter:
until I know the right and wrong of the transaction, I put my hand
behind my back. A man may be the pitifullest prince; he must be a
spotless gentleman."

The Prince had gotten to his feet, as pale as paper. "Gotthold," he
said, "you drive me beyond bounds. Beware, sir, beware!"

"Do you threaten me, friend Otto?" asked the Doctor grimly. "That would
be a strange conclusion."

"When have you ever known me use my power in any private animosity?"
cried Otto. "To any private man your words were an unpardonable insult,
but at me you shoot in full security, and I must turn aside to
compliment you on your plainness. I must do more than pardon, I must
admire, because you have faced this--this formidable monarch, like a
Nathan before David. You have uprooted an old kindness, sir, with an
unsparing hand. You leave me very bare. My last bond is broken; and
though I take Heaven to witness that I sought to do the right, I have
this reward: to find myself alone. You say I am no gentleman; yet the
sneers have been upon your side; and though I can very well perceive
w