however that may be, she is certainly in distress.
And so I can't ask her, now...."

"It's a pity, as you're here together. A thing of this sort is often
settled at a distance. If it was arranged here, you would perhaps not
need to make the journey."

"But, aunt, papa was so bent upon it!"

"That's true; but then nothing was yet decided."

"No, aunt, let me make the journey. For in any case it's impossible to
arrange things here. If papa himself asked me, I should tell him ...
that it was impossible."

"Papa does ask you, Othomar, in his letter to me."

He seized her hands:

"Aunt, in that case, write to him and say that it's impossible, at this
moment ... oh, impossible, impossible! Let us spare her, aunt. If she
becomes my wife, she will still become so while she loves another. Will
that not be terrible enough for her, when it is decided months hence?
Therefore let us spare her now. You feel that too, as a woman, don't
you? There are no affairs of state that make it necessary for my
marriage to take place in such a hurry."

"Yet papa wishes you to marry as soon as possible. He wants a
grandson...."

He made no reply; a look of suffering passed over his face. The queen
perceived it:

"But you're right," she replied, giving way. "It would be too cruel.
Valerie, I may tell you, is bearing up wonderfully. That's how a future
Empress of Liparia ought to be...."

He still made no reply and walked silently beside her; her arm lay in
his; she felt his arm tremble:

"Come," she said, gently, "let us go in; walking up and down like this
is fatiguing...."

6

Ducardi, Dutri, Leoni and Thesbia arrived at Altseeborgen; they were to
accompany Othomar on his official journey through Europe.

It was one of the last days, in the morning, when Othomar was walking
with Herman towards the woods. The sun was shining, the woods were
fragrant, the foot slid over the smooth pine-needles. The princes sat
down on the ground, near a great pool of water; around them rose the
straight pine-trunks, with their knotty peaks of side-branches; the sky
faded into the distance with blue chinks showing between the projecting
foliage of needles.

Herman leant against a tree-trunk; Othomar stretched himself flat on his
back, with his hands beneath his head:

"It will soon be over now," he said, softly.

Herman made no reply, but mechanically swept the pine-needles together
with his hand. Nor did Othomar speak again; he swallow