hen
sat down again. He laughed a little laugh, and then, changing his tone,
resumed: "Yes, dear child, we are not here to do battle with giants; we
are here to be happy like the flowers, if we can be. It is because you
could, that I have always secretly admired you. Cling to that trade;
believe me, it is the right one. Be happy, be idle, be airy. To the
devil with all casuistry! and leave the state to Gondremark, as
heretofore. He does it well enough, they say; and his vanity enjoys the
situation."

"Gotthold," cried Otto, "what is this to me? Useless is not the
question; I cannot rest at uselessness; I must be useful or I must be
noxious--one or other. I grant you the whole thing, prince and
principality alike, is pure absurdity, a stroke of satire; and that a
banker or the man who keeps an inn has graver duties. But now, when I
have washed my hands of it three years, and left all--labour,
responsibility, and honour and enjoyment too, if there be any--to
Gondremark and to--Seraphina----" He hesitated at the name, and Gotthold
glanced aside. "Well," the Prince continued, "what has come of it?
Taxes, army, cannon--why, it's like a box of lead soldiers! And the
people sick at the folly of it, and fired with the injustice! And war,
too--I hear of war--war in this teapot! What a complication of absurdity
and disgrace! And when the inevitable end arrives--the revolution--who
will be to blame in the sight of God, who will be gibbeted in public
opinion? I! Prince Puppet!"

"I thought you had despised public opinion," said Gotthold.

"I did," said Otto sombrely, "but now I do not. I am growing old. And
then, Gotthold, there is Seraphina. She is loathed in this country that
I brought her to and suffered her to spoil. Yes, I gave it her as a
plaything, and she has broken it: a fine Prince, an admirable Princess!
Even her life--I ask you, Gotthold, is her life safe?"

"It is safe enough to-day," replied the librarian: "but since you ask me
seriously, I would not answer for to-morrow. She is ill-advised."

"And by whom? By this Gondremark, to whom you counsel me to leave my
country," cried the Prince. "Rare advice! The course that I have been
following all these years, to come at last to this. O, ill-advised! if
that were all! See now, there is no sense in beating about the bush
between two men: you know what scandal says of her?"

Gotthold, with pursed lips, silently nodded.

"Well, come, you are not very cheering as to my