He made no stir at our light, slumbered untreasoned on. The lids of
his Queen were lightlier sealed, only withheld beauty as a cloud the
sky it hides. His courtiers flattered more elusively, being sincerely
mute, and only a little red dust was all the wine left.

I seemed to hear their laughter clearer now that the jest was
forgotten, and to admire better the pomp, and the mirth, and the
grace, and the vanity, now that time had so far travelled from this
little tumult once their triumph.

In a kind of furtive bravado, I paced the length of the long, thronged
tables. Here sat a little prince that captivated me, dipping his
fingers into his cup with a sidelong glance at his mother. There a
high officer, I know not how magnificent and urgent when awake,
slumbered with eyes wide open above his discouraged moustaches.

Simply for vanity of being awake in such a sleepy company, I strutted
conceitedly to and fro. I bent deftly and pilfered a little cockled
cherry from between the very fingertips of her whose heart was
doubtless like its--quite hard. And the bright lips never said a word.
I sat down, rather clownishly I felt, beside an aged and simpering
chancellor that once had seemed wise, but now seemed innocent,
nibbling a biscuit crisp as scandal. For after all the horn _would_
sound. Childhood had been quite sure of that--needed not even the
author's testimony. They were alert to rise, scattering all dust,
victors over Time and outrageous Fortune.

Almost with a cry of apprehension I perceived again the solitary
Prince. But he merely smiled faintly. "You see, sir," he said, "how
weary must a guardianship be of them who never tire. The snow falls,