Still the Prince said nothing. His father looked up and studied his face attentively, but could guess nothing from its enigmatical expression. “You seem tongue-tied, Humphry!” he said--“Come, sit down! Let us talk this out. Can you not trust me, your father, as a friend?” “I wish I could!” answered the young man, half inaudibly. “And can you not?” “No. You have never loved me!” The King drew his cigar from his mouth, and flicking off a morsel of ash, looked at its end meditatively. “Well--no!--I cannot say honestly that I have. Love,--it is a ridiculous word, Humphry, but it has a meaning on certain occasions!--love for the children of your mother is an impossibility!” “Sir, I am not to blame for my mother’s disposition.” “True--very true. You are not to blame. But you exist. And that you do exist is a fact of national importance. Will you not sit down?” “At your command, Sir!” and the Prince seated himself opposite his father, who having studied his cigar sufficiently, replaced it between his lips and went on smoking for a few minutes before he spoke again. Then he resumed:-- “Your existence, I repeat, Humphry, is a fact of national importance. To you falls the Throne when I have done with it, and life has done with me. Therefore, your conduct,--your mode of life--your example in manners--concern, not me, so much as the nation. You say that you cannot trust me as a friend, because I have never loved you. Is not this a somewhat childish remark on your part? We live in a very practical age--love is not a necessary tie between human beings as things go nowadays;--the closest bond of friendship rests on the basis of cash accounts.” “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?”