arents, and in particular from his mother,
it was less through any fault of his, or of theirs--I repeat it--than
through the intrigues of Bismarck, and of the latter's friends within
and without the imperial household, who fondly imagined that they were
serving the "vaterland" by keeping the parents and their son estranged
from one another.

CHAPTER VII

Everyone, I presume, is acquainted with that old French saying, "_Dis
moi qui tu hantes et je te dirai qui tu es!_" which may be rendered in
English: "Tell me with whom you associate and I will tell you who
you are!" While this adage is almost invariably true in the case of
ordinary people, it would hardly be just to apply it where monarchs
and princes of the blood are concerned. Given that every form of
pleasure, of entertainment and of amusement is always within their
reach, thanks to the loftiness of their station, their wealth, and
facilitated furthermore by the anxiety of their courtiers both to
please them and to retain their favor, they naturally soon become
blase to such an extent that they become a prey to ennui--a thoroughly
royal malady, from which few, if any, of the scions of the reigning
houses of Europe are exempt. "Ennui," like "chic," is a French
word difficult to translate and subject to much misinterpretation,
especially in the United States, where it is practically unknown. The
majority of Americans are far too busy, and are environed by too much
bustle and activity to experience such a thing as ennui, and even the
American leisure class, still in an embryo condition, as a rule are
too new to their privileges to have that feeling. To suffer from ennui
implies so deep a knowledge of life, and a corresponding satiety of
its pleasures, that all the ordinary routine events of existence have
no longer any power to interest the mind. Ennui is not weariness nor
tediousness, as described in the dictionary; neither is it boredom,
for the latter differs therefrom in its not necessarily being the
outcome of a high degree of civilization, which ennui certainly is.

An untutored savage of Central Africa, or of the wilds of Australia
may be bored; so are many of the ignorant houris of Oriental harems
and zenanas. Nay, even an energetic business man may feel
temporarily bored by enforced bodily or mental inaction, or by dreary
associations; but that can scarcely be described as _ennui_, a feeling
which in the true sense of the word means being thoroughly