ve faith," continued the prince. "Perhaps
an almost superstitious faith. I plainly see, in what has happened, the
hand of God...."

He passed his hand over his forehead, with a meditative gaze:

"The hand of God," he repeated. "I had a presentiment that one of us
would die within this year. I thought that I myself should be the one to
die. That is perhaps why, papa, I did not see how monstrous it was of me
to take the resolution which I did. I was not thinking of myself, who
was bound to die in any event; I thought only of Berengar. But now he is
dead and I am alive; and I shall now think of myself. For I feel that I
do not belong to myself. And I feel that it is this that should support
us through life: this feeling that we do belong not to ourselves but to
others. I have always loved our people and I have wished to help them
vaguely, in the abstract; I threw out my hands, without knowing why, and
when I did not make good, it drove me to despair...."

He suddenly stopped and looked timidly at his father, as though he had
gone too far in delivering his thoughts. But Oscar sat calmly listening
to him; and he continued:

"And I now know that this despair is not right, because with this
despair we keep ourselves for ourselves and cannot give ourselves to
others. You see--" he rose and smiled--"I cannot manage to cure myself
of my philosophy, but I hope now that it will tend to strengthen me
instead of enervating me, as it now flows from quite a different
principle."

The emperor gave a little shrug of the shoulders:

"Every one must work out his own theory of life, Othomar. I can only
give you this advice: do not be carried away by enthusiasm and keep your
point of view high. Do not analyse yourself out of all existence, for
such abnegation does not last and inevitably harks back to the old
rights. I do not reflect so much as you do; I am more spontaneous and
impulsive. But I will not condemn you for being different: you can't
help it. Perhaps you belong to this age more than I do. I only wish to
look at the result of your reflections; and this result is that you're
giving yourself back to ordinary life and to the interests of your
country. And this rejoices me, Othomar. Nor do I wish to look too far
into the future; I dare say that later too you will not have my ideas, I
dare say that later you will reign with a brand-new constitution, with
an elected upper house. I expect you will encounter much opposition from
th