Part 33 (2/2)
The King began to laugh. This boy was developing 'discursive philosophies' such as his own old tutor had abhorred.
”Upon my life, I do not know, Humphry!” he declared; ”You must ask the departed shades of those who made themselves responsible for kings.h.i.+p in the first place. Personally, I do not come under the law. I have only married once myself!”
His son looked full at him;--and the intensity of that look affected and unsteadied his usual calm nerves. But he was not one to s.h.i.+rk an unpleasant suggestion.
”You would say, Humphry, if your filial respect permitted you, that my one marriage has been amplified in various other ways. Perfectly true!
When women lie down and ask you to walk over them, you do it if you are a man and a king! When, on the contrary, women show you that they do not care whether you are royal or the reverse, and despise you more than admire you, you run after them for all you are worth! At least I do! I always have done so. And, to a certain extent, it has been amusing. But the limit is reached. I am growing old!” Here he took up the cigar he had thrown aside when his son had first startled him by the announcement of his marriage, and relighting it, began to smoke peaceably. ”I am, as I say, growing old. I have never found what is called love. You have--or think you have! Enjoy your dream, Humphry--but--take my advice and go abroad! See whether travel does not work a change in you or,--in her!”
He paused a moment, and while the Prince still regarded him fixedly, added; ”Will you tell the Queen?”
”I will leave you to tell her, Sir, with your permission;” replied the Prince; ”I cannot expect her sympathy.”
”Von Glauben, then, is the only person you have trusted with your confidence?”
”Von Glauben was no party to my marriage, Sir. I was married fully three months before I told him. He was greatly vexed and troubled,--but when he saw Gloria, he was glad.”
”Glad!” echoed the King; ”For what reason, pray?”
”I am afraid, Sir,” said the young man with a smile, ”his gladness was but a part of his science! He said it was better for a prince to wed a healthy and beautiful commoner, than the daughter of a hundred scrofulous kings!”
With a movement of intense indignation, the monarch sprang up from the chair in which he had just seated himself.
”Now, by Heaven!” he exclaimed; ”Von Glauben goes too far! He shall suffer for this!”
”Why?” queried the Prince calmly; ”You know that what he says is perfectly true. True? Why, there is scarcely a Royal house in the world save our own, without its hereditary curse of disease or insanity.
We pay more attention to the breeding of horses than the breeding of kings!”
The plain candour and veracity of the statement, left no room for denial.
”You have seen Gloria,” went on the Prince; ”You know she is the most beautiful creature your eyes ever rested upon! Von Glauben told me you were stricken dumb, and almost stupefied at sight of her----”
”d.a.m.n Von Glauben!” said the King.
His son smiled ever so slightly, but continued.
”You have made yourself acquainted with her history--”
”Yes!” said the King; ”That she is a foundling picked up from the sea--a castaway from a wreck!--no one knows who her father and mother were, and yet you, in your raving madness and folly of love, would make her Crown Princess and future Queen!”
The Prince went on unheedingly.
”She is beautiful--and the simple method of her bringing up has left her unspoilt and innocent. She is ignorant of the world's ways--because--”
and his voice sank to a reverential tenderness--”G.o.d's ways are more familiar to her!” He paused, but his father was silent; he therefore went on. ”She is healthy, strong, simple and true,--more fit for a throne, if such were her destiny, than any daughter of any Royal house I know of. Happy the nation that could call such a woman their Queen!”
”As I have already told you, Humphry,” returned the King, ”you are in love!--with the love of a headstrong, pa.s.sionate boy for a beautiful and credulous girl. I do not propose to discuss the subject further. You are willing to go abroad, you tell me,--then make your preparations at once.
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