so in your case?"

"Yes, Your Majesty, I thank you for asking me that question. And now
let me confess.--What I am about to say is without the slightest tinge
of bitterness. When I regard a fact as accomplished, I have done with
it. I therefore speak of it without embarrassment, just as if I were
explaining the operation of some law of nature. Yes, Your Majesty, I
have richly deserved all that has happened to me. I was most graciously
dismissed from Your Majesty's favor, and it was but just that it should
be so."

"That was not what I meant I had no desire to allude to it. On the
contrary--"

"Permit me, Your Majesty, to explain the logical line of justice as I
have understood it. Under deeply painful circumstances, I misconceived
my duty as a man, as the friend and servant of Your Majesty."

"You?" asked the king.

"Yes, I! And that I meant it for the best, is no excuse. We all mean to
be good, but we have all of us an equal right to be wise. I endeavored
to lead the queen to an elevated plain, from which the petty events of
life would appear trifling and easily borne. It was a grievous error.
It was my duty to avoid all interference, unless I could avert the
impending conflict. You acted rightly and, at the same time, benefited
the queen by sending me away. Isolated from every influence, even that
of a friend, she could not but gain strength as she has done."

A tear glistened in the king's eyes. He pressed his left hand to his
heart, as if to repress a thought that he did not care to reveal.

"I am happy," said he at last, "that my life has made me acquainted
with such men as you and our dear Bronnen. We only partially make
ourselves what we are. Consciously or unconsciously, we are formed by
those with whom we associate."

He pressed Gunther's hand in his, and Gunther was happy to feel that
the king's heroic self-glorification was completely subdued--the king's
confession being a convincing proof of this.

"Papa!" called a boy's voice from the terrace, "papa!"

They turned in the direction from which the voice had come. The queen,
surrounded by the ladies and gentlemen of her court, was sitting on the
terrace. With anxious eyes, she had followed every movement of the two
men. What might they be speaking of? Were these Elysian days to be
disturbed by the old and unforgotten wrong?

And now, when she saw the king take Gunther's hand in his own and hold
it for a long while, she embraced the prince, kissed