in his
baritone voice, a note that caused a momentary slight surprise and
rendered him attractive when it sounded gently in the midst of his
virility. And now that he sat there, easily, simply, pleasantly and yet
with a certain dignity that did not permit him an absolute excess of
joviality; now that he spoke, with his sweet voice, of his father, his
mother, his brothers and sisters and asked after his uncle, the Emperor
Oscar of Liparia, asked after Othomar, Thera: now, yes, now he aroused
in the empress a delicate feeling of family affection, something of a
secret bond of blood, a very solid support of relationship amid the
isolation of their respective grandeurs, the grandeurs of Liparia and
Gothland. Yonder, at the other side of Europe, far, far away from her
and yet so near through the magnetism of this delicate feeling, she felt
Gothland lying as one vast plain of love, whither she could allow her
thoughts to wander. She was no longer giddy with melancholy and dread in
that she was so high together with those whom she loved, her husband and
her children, for she was not high alone: in her highness she leant
against another highness, Liparia against Gothland, Gothland against
Liparia. It brought moist tears to her eyes, it brought a melancholy
that was like happiness clinging to her breath. The spectre of dread had
disappeared. She could have embraced her nephew; she would have liked to
tell him all this: his mere presence gave her this feeling, a feeling of
comfort and of strength; she had not known it for months.

2

The door was opened; the flunkey stood stiff and upright, with a fixed
look that stared straight before him, in the shadow of the hangings.
Princess Thera and Othomar entered. The princess went up gaily and
kindly to her cousin, they kissed; Othomar also embraced Herman, with a
single word. But, in comparison with the natural utterances of the
empress and of Thera, this single word of the Duke of Xara sounded
studied and smilingly cold, not intimate, and carried a needless air of
etiquette. It failed to conceal a translucent insincerity, a transparent
show that made no effort to simulate affection, but seemed quite simply
what at this moment it could not but seem, a greeting of feigned
kindness between two cousins of the same age. Prince Herman was
accustomed to this: there was no intimacy between him and Othomar; and
this was the more striking when they saw each other for the first time
after