did not fail to point out this difficulty to her excellency; but
perhaps, if your highness would be so gracious ... one might
nevertheless...."

Othomar closed his eyes and threw his head back; his hand fell loosely
upon the collie's head. He made no further reply and his lips were
tightly compressed.

Dutri still hesitated: what could he do, what should he tell Alexa?...

But the door opened and the empress entered. The drawing-room was over;
she had put off her robes and the crown, but she still wore her stiff,
heavy dress of silver brocade. She looked coldly at Dutri and bowed her
head slightly, as a sign for him to go: the equerry beat a confused
retreat, without his usual tact.

Othomar half-rose from his couch:

"Mamma!..."

She sat down beside him, stroked his forehead with her hand:

"How do you feel?"

He smiled and blinked with his eyes, without replying.

"What was Dutri doing here?"

"He wanted ... Oh, mamma, never mind, don't ask me!... How beautiful you
look! May I, too, kiss your hand?"

Winningly, jestingly he took her hand and kissed it. She took his book
from his fingers, read the treasonable title:

"Are you reading again, Othomar?... You know you mustn't read so much.
And why all these strange books?..."

On the table lay Lassalle, Marx, works by Russian nihilists, a pamphlet
by Bakounine, pamphlets by Zanti.... The little work which he was
reading was by a well-known Liparian anarchist and entitled, _Injustice
by the Grace of God;_ it overthrew everything: religion and the state;
it addressed itself directly to the crowned tyrants in power; it
addressed itself directly to Oscar.

"Is it to get back your health, Othomar, that you read this sort of
thing?" she asked, in a tone of pained reproach.

"But, mamma, I must see what it is that they want...."

"And what do they want?"

He looked pensively before him:

"I don't know what they want, I can't understand them. They employ very
long sentences, the same sentences over and over again, with the same
words over and over again. I can just make out that they disapprove of
everything that exists and want something different. But yet
sometimes...."

"Sometimes what?"

"Sometimes they say terrible things, terrible because they sound so
true, mamma. When they speak of God and prove that He does not exist,
when they describe our whole system of government as a monstrosity and
reject all authority, including our own.... They sometim