ks, occupied by the lancers; to the Wenceslas
Barracks occupied by the grenadiers; or to the Berengar Barracks,
occupied by the hussars. Here he enquired, investigated, inspected; and
here he found his equerries, Dutri and Leoni; he rode back with them to
the palace, and repaired to his father's room. This was the hour when
Count Myxila came to the emperor and when affairs of state were
discussed with the imperial chancellor; lately the crown-prince had
assisted at these meetings. Next he visited the empress, who was
expecting him: it was generally a most delightful moment, this which
they spent confidentially together before lunch, a moment full of charm
and intimacy. He sat close by her on a low chair, took her hand, poured
out to her the burdens of his heart, communicated to her his anxiety
about the future, about himself when later he himself would wear the
crown. At such times his eyes peered up through their lashes, with their
dark melancholy; his voice was querulous and begged for comfort. And she
encouraged him: she told him that nothing happened but what had to
happen; that everything was inevitable in the world's great chain of
events, joined link by link; that he must wait for what might come, but
at the same time do his duty; and that he must not unnerve himself with
such endless pondering, which led to nothing. He told her how he feared
his own hesitation and how he suspected that his decisions would always
come too late; and she, gently laughing, replied that, if he knew his
own faults so well, he should train himself to make his mind. He
questioned her about justice--the one thing that seemed impossible to
him on earth--and she referred him to his own feeling, as a human soul.
But yet, intensely sweet as these hours were, he felt that he remained
the same under their interchange of words and that, though words had
been exchanged, nothing was changed within him. Wherefore he thought
himself wicked and was afraid that he did not love his mother enough,
with enough conviction. Then he looked at her, saw her smiling, divined
beneath her smile the nervous dread which would never again relinquish
its grasp of her and felt that she spoke like this only for his sake, to
cheer him, and not from conviction. And his thoughts no longer wandered
discursively about him, as on his morning ride along the quays: they
fell like fine mists one upon the other in his imagination and formed
his melancholy.

Lunch was taken pri