leave the state to Gondremark, as heretofore. He does it well enough, they say; and his vanity enjoys the situation.'

`Gotthold,' cried Otto, `what is this to me? Useless is not the question; I cannot rest at uselessness; I must be useful or I must be noxious -- one or other. I grant you the whole thing, prince and principality alike, is pure absurdity, a stroke of satire; and that a banker or the man who keeps an inn has graver duties. But now, when I have washed my hands of it three years, and left all -- labour, responsibility, and honour and enjoyment too, if there be any -- to Gondremark and to -- Seraphina --' He hesitated at the name, and Gotthold glanced aside. `Well,' the Prince continued, `what has come of it? Taxes, army, cannon -- why, it's like a box of lead soldiers! And the people sick at the folly of it, and fired with the injustice! And war, too -- I hear of war -- war in this teapot! What a complication of absurdity and disgrace! And when the inevitable end arrives -- the revolution -- who will be to blame in the sight of God, who will be gibbeted in public opinion? I! Prince Puppet!'

`I thought you had despised public opinion,' said Gotthold.

`I did,' said Otto sombrely, `but now I do not. I am growing old. And then, Gotthold, there is Seraphina. She is loathed in this country that I brought her to and suffered her to spoil. Yes, I gave it her as a plaything, and she has broken it: a fine Prince, an admirable Princess! Even her life -- I ask you, Gotthold, is her life safe?'

`It is safe enough to-day,' replied the librarian: `but since you ask me seriously, I would not answer for to- morrow. She is ill- advised.'

`And by whom? By this Gondremark, to whom you counsel me to leave my country,' cried the Prince. `Rare advice! The course that I have been following all these years, to come at last to this. O, ill-advised! if that were all! See now, there is no sense in beating about the bush between two men: you know what scandal says of her?'

Gotthold, with pursed lips, silently nodded.

`Well, come, you are not very cheering as to my conduct as the Prince; have I even done my duty as a husband?' Otto asked.

`Nay, nay,' said Gotthold, earnestly and eagerly, `this is another chapter. I am an old celibate, an old monk. I cannot advise you in your marriage.'

`Nor do I require advice,' said Otto, rising. `All of this must cease.' And he began to walk to and fro with his hands behind his back.

`Well, Otto, may God guide you!' said Gotthold, after a considerable silence. `I cannot.'

`From what does all this spring?' said the Prince, stopping in his walk. `What am I to call it? Diffidence? The fear of ridicule? Inverted vanity? What matter names, if it has brought me to this? I could never bear to be bustling about nothing; I was ashamed of this toy kingdom from the first; I could not tolerate that people should fancy I believed in a thing so patently absurd! I would do nothing that cannot be done smiling. I have a sense of humour, forsooth! I must know better than my Maker. And it was 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!'