"I am perfectly aware of that!" said the Prince, fixing his fine dark
eyes full on his father's face--"And yet, after all, love is such a
vital necessity, that I have only to look at you, in order to realize
the failure and mistake of trying to do without it!"

The King gave him a glance of whimsical surprise.

"So!--you have begun to notice what I have known for years!" he said
lightly--"Clever young man! What fine fairy finger is pointing out to
you my deficiencies, while supplying your own? Do you learn to estimate
the priceless value of love while contemplating the romantic groves and
woodlands of The Islands? Do you read poetry there?--or write it? Or
talk it?"

Prince Humphry coloured,--then grew very pale.

"When I misuse my time, Sir," he said--"Surely it will then be needful
to catechise me on the manner in which I spend it,--but not till then!"

"Fairly put!" answered the King--"But I have an idea--it may be a
mistaken idea,--still I have it--that you _are_ misusing your
time, Humphry! And this is the cause of our present little discussion.
If I knew that you occupied yourself with the pleasures befitting your
age and rank, I should be more at ease."

"What do you consider to be the pleasures befitting my age and rank?"
asked the Prince with a touch of satire; "Making a fool of myself
generally?"

The King smiled.