“At last the Prince recovered sufficiently to continue his journey, and I went down to order a special train to take us up to town the following morning. By some stupid arrangement, however, of the directors, an earlier announcement should have been given, and all they could do was to let us have one of the royal carriages attached to the express. I was vexed at this, and so was Dollington, but the Prince did not care, in the least; and when I went to speak of it to Olga, she hung down her head for an instant, and then, in a voice and with an accent I shall never forget, she said, 'Ah, Monsieur Darner, it would appear to be your destiny to be always too late!' She left me as she spoke, and we never met after; for on that same evening I learned from Dollington she was betrothed to the Duke Max of Hohenhammelsbraten, and to be married in a month. That was the meaning of her emotion,--that was the source of a sorrow that all but overcame her; for she loved me, Tony,--she loved me! not with that headlong devotion that belongs to the wanner races, but with a Teutonic love; and when she said, 'I was too late,' it was the declaration of a heart whose valves worked under a moderate pressure, and never risked an explosion.” “But how do you know that she was not alluding to the train, and to your being late to receive them on the landing?” asked Tony. “Ain't you prosaic, Tony,--ain't you six-and-eight-pence! with your dull and commonplace interpretation! I tell you, sir, that she meant, 'I love you, but it is in vain,--I love you, but another is before you,--I love you, but you come too late!'” “And what did you do?” asked Tony, anxious to relieve himself from a position of some awkwardness. “I acted with dignity, sir. I resigned in the Household, and got appointed to the Colonial.” “And what does it all prove, except it be something against your own theory, that a man should think there is nothing too high for his reach?” “Verily, Tony, I have much to teach you,” said Skeffy, gravely, but good-naturedly. “This little incident shows by what slight casualties our fortunes are swayed: had it not been for Max of Hammelsbraten, where might not I have been to-day? It is by the flaw in the metal the strength of the gun is measured,--so it is by a man's failures in life you can estimate his value. Another would not have dared to raise his eyes so high!” “That I can well believe,” said Tony, dryly. “You, for instance, would no more have permitted yourself to fall in love with her, than you'd have thought of tossing for half-crowns with the Prince her father.” “Pretty much the same,” muttered Tony. “That 's it,--that is exactly what establishes the difference between men in life. It is by the elevation given to the cannon that the ball is thrown so far. It is by the high purpose of a man that you measure his genius.”