These Americans downstairs were not all bad, then. They were too rich, of course. No one should have meat three times a day, as the meat-seller reported they did. And they were paying double rent for the apartment below. But that, of course, they could not avoid, not knowing the real charge.
The boy was frankly delighted. And when old Adelbert brought forth from his basket a sausage and, boiling it lightly, served him a slice between two pieces of bread, an odd friendship was begun that was to have unforeseen consequences. They had broken bread together.
Between the very old and the very young come sometimes these strong affections. Perhaps it is that age harkens back to the days of its youth, and by being very old, becomes young again. Or is it that children are born old, with the withered, small faces of all the past, and must, year by year, until their maturity, shed this mantle of age?
Gradually, over the meal, and the pigeons, and what not, old Adelbert unburdened his heart. He told of his years at the Opera, where he had kept his glasses clean and listened to the music until he knew by heart even the most difficult passages. He told of the Crown Prince, who always wished opera-glasses, not because he needed them, but because he liked to turn them wrong end before, and thus make the audience appear at a great distance. And then he told of the loss of his position.
The American lad listened politely, but his mind was on the Crown Prince. “Does he wear a crown?” he demanded. “I saw him once in a carriage, but I think he had a hat.”
“At the coronation he will wear a crown.”
“Do people do exactly what he tells them?”
Old Adelbert was not certain. He hedged, rather. “Probably, whenever it is good for him.”
“Huh! What’s the use of being a prince?” observed the boy, who had heard of privileges being given that way before. “When will he be a king?”
“When the old King dies. He is very old now. I was in a hospital once, after a battle. And he came in. He put his hand on my shoulder, like this” he illustrated it on the child’s small one—and said— Considering that old Adelbert no longer loved his King, it is strange to record that his voice broke.