constitutionally unfit to be a sovereign, what am I doing with this
money, with this palace, with these guards? And I - a thief - am to
execute the law on others?'

'I admit the difficulty,' said Gotthold.

'Well, can I not try?' continued Otto. 'Am I not bound to try? And
with the advice and help of such a man as you - '

'Me!' cried the librarian. 'Now, God forbid!'

Otto, though he was in no very smiling humour, could not forbear to
smile. 'Yet I was told last night,' he laughed, 'that with a man
like me to impersonate, and a man like you to touch the springs, a
very possible government could be composed.'

'Now I wonder in what diseased imagination,' Gotthold said, 'that
preposterous monster saw the light of day?'

'It was one of your own trade - a writer: one Roederer,' said Otto.

'Roederer! an ignorant puppy!' cried the librarian.

'You are ungrateful,' said Otto. 'He is one of your professed
admirers.'

'Is he?' cried Gotthold, obviously impressed. 'Come, that is a good
account of the young man. I must read his stuff again. It is the
rather to his credit, as our views are opposite. The east and west
are not more opposite. Can I have converted him? But no; the