BOOK II - OF LOVE AND POLITICS




CHAPTER I - WHAT HAPPENED IN THE LIBRARY


AT a quarter before six on the following morning Doctor Gotthold was
already at his desk in the library; and with a small cup of black
coffee at his elbow, and an eye occasionally wandering to the busts
and the long array of many-coloured books, was quietly reviewing the
labours of the day before. He was a man of about forty, flaxen-
haired, with refined features a little worn, and bright eyes
somewhat faded. Early to bed and early to rise, his life was
devoted to two things: erudition and Rhine wine. An ancient
friendship existed latent between him and Otto; they rarely met, but
when they did it was to take up at once the thread of their
suspended intimacy. Gotthold, the virgin priest of knowledge, had
envied his cousin, for half a day, when he was married; he had never
envied him his throne.

Reading was not a popular diversion at the court of Grunewald; and
that great, pleasant, sunshiny gallery of books and statues was, in
practice, Gotthold's private cabinet. On this particular Wednesday
morning, however, he had not been long about his manuscript when a
door opened and the Prince stepped into the apartment. The doctor
watched him as he drew near, receiving, from each of the embayed