“No; I am afraid to keep one.”

To me this was a new phase in the matter of grand passions.

“A likeness which never changes its expression means nothing to me,” he explained.  “Her face in all its moods is graven in my mind; I have but to shut my eyes, and she stands before me in all her loveliness.  Do you know why I wanted this vacation?  Rest?” His shoulders went up and his lips closed tighter.  “My son, I want no rest.  It is rest which is killing me.  I am going across.  I am going to see her again, if only from the curb as she rolls past in her carriage, looking at me but not recognizing me, telling her footman to brush me aside should I attempt to speak to her.  Yet I would suffer this humiliation to see that glorious face once more, to hear again that voice, though it were keyed to scorn.  I am a fool, Jack.  What! have I gone all these years free-heart to love a chimera in the end?  Verily I am an ass.  She is a Princess; she has riches; she has a principality; she is the ward of a King.  What has she to do with such as I?  Three months in the year she dwells in her petty palace; the other months find her here and there; Paris, St. Petersburg, or Rome, as fancy wills.  And I, I love her!  Is it not rich?  What am I?  A grub burrowing at the root of the tree in which she, like a bird of paradise, displays her royal plumage.  ’Masters, remember that I am an ass; though it be not written down, yet forget not that I am an ass.’  The father of this Princess once rendered the present King’s father a great service, and in return the King turned over to his care a principality whose lineal descendants had died out.  It was with the understanding that so long as he retained the King’s goodwill, just so long he might possess the principality, and that when he died the sovereignty would pass to his children.  The old King died, and his son sat upon his father’s throne.  The father of the Princess also died.  The King of to-day made the same terms as his father before him.  The Princess Hildegarde accepted them, not counting the cost.  Last spring she was coronated.  Shortly before the coronation, Prince Ernst of Wortumborg became a suitor for her hand.  The King was very much pleased.  Prince Ernst was a cousin of the Princess Hildegarde’s father, and had striven for the principality in the days gone by.  The King, thinking to repair the imaginary wrongs of the Prince, forced the suit.  He impressed upon the Princess that it was marry the Prince or give up her principality.  She gave her consent, not knowing what to do under the circumstances.  Prince Ernst is a Prince without principality or revenues.  In marrying the Princess he acquires both.  I shall tell you how I became concerned.”

Hillars laid his smoking pipe in the ash pan.  He got up and roamed about the room, stopped at the window and stared at the inken sky, then returned to his chair.

CHAPTER IV