March. It is now September. I imagine that his highness has been
leading a very active life in the meantime?"

The emperor made movements with his eyebrows as if he could not
understand: tremulous motions of his powerful head, with its fleece of
silvering hair.

"The journey to the north may in fact have affected his highness,
professor," the empress began.

She was sitting haughtily upright, in her plain dark dress. Her face was
expressionless, her eyes were cold. She spoke in a matter-of-fact tone,
as though she were not a mother.

"His highness is very sensitive to impressions," she continued, "and he
received a good many at Altara that were likely to shock him."

The professor made a slight movement of the head:

"I remember, ma'am, seeing his highness at the identification of the
corpses in the fields," he said. "His highness _was_ very much
affected...."

"But to what does all this tend?" asked the emperor, still recalcitrant.

"It tends to this, sir, that his highness has presumably allowed himself
no rest since that time...."

"His highness has allowed himself months of rest!" exclaimed the
emperor.

"Will your majesty permit us to cast our eyes backwards for a moment?
After the very fatiguing journey in the north, the prince returned
straight to conditions of political excitement--Lipara was then under
martial law--and afterwards came the bustle of a festival time, when the
King and Queen of Syria were here...."

The emperor shrugged his shoulders.

"After that, the prince, acting on the advice of my respected
colleagues, went on a sea-voyage to restore his health. No doubt his
highness then enjoyed some days of rest; but the great hunting-trips in
which he took part with Prince Herman were beyond a doubt too much for
his highness' strength. Now, quite recently, his highness has been
betrothed: this may have caused him some excitement. I am casually
mentioning a few of the main facts, sir. I know nothing of the prince's
inner life: if I knew something of that, it would certainly make many
things much easier for me. But this is certain: his highness has from
day to day led a too highly agitated existence, whatever the agitations
may have been, great or small. That his highness did not collapse
earlier is no doubt due to an uncommon power of self-control, of which I
believe the prince himself to be unconscious, and an uncommon sense of
duty, which is also quite spontaneous in his highness. These a