tion had been military and strictly chaste, his youth had remained
uncorrupted by the easy morals of the court, perhaps because his
parents, after a long and secret separation, known to none but
themselves, had come together again from a need of family-life and
mutual support; the Empress Elizabeth had forgiven the Emperor Oscar and
submitted to his infidelities as inevitable. Round about him Othomar had
never had occasion to observe the life of the senses. At the university
of Altara, where he had studied, he had never taken part, except
officially, in the diversions of the students; he had always remained
the crown-prince, not from haughtiness, but because he was unable to do
otherwise, from lack of ease and tact.

And something in the duchess had made an impression on him, as of a
thing unknown. He felt in this woman, who curtseyed so deeply before him
with her sphinx-like smile, a world of emotion and knowledge which he
did not possess; he had felt poor in comparison with her, small and
insignificant. What was it that she possessed and he not? Was it a
riddle of the soul? Were there such things, soul-enigmas, and was it
worth while to try to fathom them? Such a woman as she, was she not
quite different from his mother and sisters? Or did his equerries, among
themselves, speak of his sisters too as they spoke of the duchess? And
this life of passion, this life of love for so many, was that then the
truth? Did they not slander her, the equerries, or at least did they not
make truth seem different from what it was, as they always did in
everything, as if the truth must always be made to seem other to a
prince than to a subject?

He felt tired. And he sat on, striving in vain to drive from him the
whirl of the strange figures of that reception seen through a
transparency of rain. Before him, as though in his room, they all walked
through one another: the ministers, the equerries, Count Myxila and the
duchess....

A knock, a chamberlain:

"Prince Herman is asking whether he may intrude on your highness for a
minute."

He nodded yes. After a moment Prince Herman entered.

"You are always welcome, Herman," said Othomar; and his voice sounded
cold in spite of himself.

"I have come to ask you something," said Herman of Gothland. "I should
much like to go with you to Altara to-morrow; but I want to be certain
that you don't mind. I would not have asked it of my own accord, if my
aunt hadn't spoken of it. What do you