They were walking slowly under the heavy shadow of crossed ilex boughs,—and Von Glauben came to a dead halt.
“Sir,” he said, in rather unsteady accents; “With every respect for your Majesty, I must altogether decline the task of breaking a pure heart, and ruining a young life! Moreover, if your Majesty, after all your recent experiences,”—and he laid great emphasis on these last words, “thinks there is any ultimate good to be obtained by keeping up a lie, and practising a fraud, the lessons we have learned in these latter days are wholly unavailing! You began this conversation with me by speaking of a straight line of conduct, which should avoid other people’s crooked curves. Is this your Majesty’s idea of a straight line?”
He spoke with unguarded vehemence, but the King was not offended. On the contrary, he looked whimsically interested and amused.
“My dear Von Glauben, you are not usually so inconsistent! Humphry himself has kept up a lie, and practised a fraud on the girl——”
“Only for a time!” interrupted the Professor hastily.
“Oh, we all do it ‘only for a time.’ Everything—life itself—is ‘only for a time!’ You know as well as I do that this absurd marriage can never be acknowledged. I explained as much to Humphry; I told him he could guard himself by the morganatic law, provided he would consent to a Royal alliance immediately—but the young fool swore it would be bigamy, and took himself off in a huff.”
“He was right! It would be bigamy;—it is bigamy!”, said the Professor; “Call it by what name you like in Court parlance, the act of having two wives is forbidden in this country. The wisest men have come to the conclusion that one wife is enough!”
“Humphry’s ideas being so absolutely childish,” went on the King, “it is necessary for him to expand them somewhat. That is why I shall send him abroad. You have a strong flavour of romance in your Teutonic composition, Von Glauben,—and I can quite sympathise with your admiration for the ‘Glory-of-the-Sea’ as you call her. From a man’s point of view, I admire her myself. But I know nothing of her moral or mental qualities; though from her flat refusal to give me her husband’s name yesterday, I judge her as wilful,—but most pretty women are that. And as for my line of conduct, it will, I assure you, be perfectly ‘straight,’—in the direction of my duty as a King,—apart altogether from sentimental considerations! And in this, as in other things,—” he paused and emphasised his words—“I rely on your honour and faithful service!”
The Professor made no reply. He was, thinking deeply. With a kind of grim scorn, he pointed out to himself that his imagination was held captive by the mental image of a woman, whose eyes had expressed trust in him; and almost as tenderly as the lover in Tennyson’s ‘Maud’ he could have said that he ‘would die, To save from some slight shame one simple girl.’ Presently he braced himself up, and confronted his Royal master.
“Sir,” he said very quietly, yet with perfect frankness; “Your Majesty must have the goodness to pardon me if I say you must not rely upon me at all in this matter! I will promise nothing, except to be true to myself and my own sense of justice. I have given up my own country for conscience’ sake—I can easily give up another which is not my own, for the same reason. In the matter of this marriage or ‘mésalliance’ as the worldly would call it,—I have nothing whatever to do. While the Prince asked me to keep his secret, I kept it. Now that he has confided it to your Majesty, I am relieved and satisfied; and shall not in any way, by word or suggestion, interfere with your Majesty’s intentions. But, at the same time, I shall not assist them! For as regards the trusting girl who has been persuaded that she has won a great love and complete happiness for all her life,—I have sworn to be her friend;—and I must respectfully decline to be a party to any further deception in her case. Knowing what I know of her character, which is a pure and grand one, I think it would be far better to tell her the whole truth, and let her be the arbiter of her own destiny. She will decide well and truly, I am sure!”