the same thing in my marriage,' he added more
hoarsely. 'I did not believe this girl could care for me; I must not
intrude; I must preserve the foppery of my indifference. What an
impotent picture!'

'Ay, we have the same blood,' moralised Gotthold. 'You are drawing, with
fine strokes, the character of the born sceptic.'

'Sceptic?--coward!' cried Otto. 'Coward is the word. A springless,
putty-hearted, cowering coward!'

And as the Prince rapped out the words in tones of unusual vigour, a
little, stout, old gentleman, opening a door behind Gotthold, received
them fairly in the face. With his parrot's beak for a nose, his pursed
mouth, his little goggling eyes, he was the picture of formality; and in
ordinary circumstances, strutting behind the drum of his corporation, he
impressed the beholder with a certain air of frozen dignity and wisdom.
But at the smallest contrariety, his trembling hands and disconnected
gestures betrayed the weakness at the root. And now, when he was thus
surprisingly received in that library of Mittwalden Palace, which was the
customary haunt of silence, his hands went up into the air as if he had
been shot, and he cried aloud with the scream of an old woman.

'O!' he gasped, recovering, 'Your Highness! I beg ten thousand pardons.
But your Highness at such an hour in the library!--a circumstance so
unusual as your Highness's presence was a thing I could not be expected
to foresee.'

'There is no harm done, Herr Cancellarius,' said Otto.

'I came upon the errand of a moment: some papers I left over-night with
the Herr Doctor,' said the Chancellor of Grunewald. 'Herr Doctor, if you
will kindly give me them, I will intrude no longer.'

Gotthold unlocked a drawer and handed a bundle of manuscript to the old
gentleman, who prepared, with fitting salutations, to take his departure.

'Herr Greisengesang, since we have met,' said Otto, 'let us talk.'

'I am honoured by his Highness's commands,' replied the Chancellor.

'All has been quiet since I left?' asked the Prince, resuming his seat.

'The usual business, your Highness,' answered Greisengesang; 'punctual
trifles: huge, indeed, if neglected, but trifles when discharged. Your
Highness is most zealously obeyed.'

'Obeyed, Herr Cancellarius?' returned the Prince. 'And when have I
obliged you with an order? Replaced, let us rather say. But to touch
upon these trifles; instance me a few.'

'The routine of government, from whi