late! Otherwise you may find yourself betrayed unawares! Good-night!"

He walked away without throwing so much as a backward glance at the
Prince, who stood amazed at the suddenness and decision with which he
had brought the conversation to a close; and it was not till his tall
figure had disappeared that the young man began to realize the doubtful
awkwardness of the attitude he had assumed towards one who, both as
parent and king, had the most urgent claim in the world upon his
respect and obedience. Impatient and angry with himself, he crossed the
loggia and went out into the garden beyond. A young moon, slender as a
bent willow wand, gleamed in the clear heavens among hosts of stars
more brilliantly visible than itself, and the soft air, laden with the
perfume of thousands of flowers, cooled his brain and calmed his
nerves. The musical low murmur of the sea, lapping against the shore
below the palace walls, suggested a whole train of pleasing and
poetical fancies, and he strolled along the dewy grass paths, under
tangles of scented shrubs and arching boughs of pine, giving himself up
to such idyllic dreams of life and life's fairest possibilities, as
only youthful and imaginative souls can indulge in. He was troubled and
vexed by his father's warning, but not sufficiently to pay serious heed
to it. His 'secret' was safe so far;--and all he had to do, so he
considered, was to exercise a little extra precaution.

"There is only Von Glauben,"--he thought, "and he would never betray
me. Besides it is a mere question of another year--and then I can make
all the truth known."

The lovely long-drawn warble of a nightingale broke the stillness
around him with a divine persistence of passion. He listened, standing
motionless, his eyes lifted towards the dark boughs above him, from