Himself. Everybody can follow--but only God's chosen few can lead! And
you--oh, Boy! yours is a birthright above that of all other princes--if
you only knew!"

The young prince looked wistfully upward into the eyes of the elder man.

"Tell me, Uncle Paul! Dmitry always speaks of my birth with a reverence
and awe quite out of proportion to its possible consequence--poor old
man. And once even the Grand Duke Peter spoke of my 'divine origin'
though he could not be coaxed or wheedled into committing his wise self
any further. Now you, yourself the most reserved and secretive of
individuals when it pleases you to be so, have just been surprised into
something of the same expression. Do you wonder that I long to unravel
the mystery that you are all so determined to keep from me? I can learn
nothing at home--absolutely nothing! They glorify my mother--God bless
her memory! Everyone worships her! But they never speak of you, and they
are silent, too, about my father. They simply won't tell me a thing
about him, so I don't imagine that he could have been a very good king!
_Was_ he, Uncle Paul? Did you know him?"

"I never knew the king, Boy!--never even saw him!"

"But you must have heard--"

"Nothing, Boy, that I can tell you--absolutely nothing!"

Verdayne had risen again and was once more pacing back and forth under
the trees, as was his wont when troubled with painful memories.

"But my mother--you knew _her_!"