Collected works > Edinburgh edition, 1894-98 - Works of Robert Louis Stevenson > Volume 9, 1895 - Romances Volume II

IN WHICH THE PRINCE
' O, then Kuno carried him home ; and they were
the best of friends from that day forth. I don't say
it's a discreditable story, you observe,' continued
Mr. Gottesheim ; ' but it 's droll, and that 's the fact,
A man should think before he strikes ; for, as my
nephew says, man to man was the old valuation.'
' Now, if you were to ask me,' said Otto, ' I should
perhaps surprise you. I think it was the Prince that
conquered.'
* And, sir, you would be right,' replied Killian,
seriously. ' In the eyes of God, I do not question
but you would be right ; but men, sir, look at these
things differently, and they laugh.'
' They made a song of it,' observed Fritz. * How
does it go ? Ta-tum-ta-ra . . .'
' Well,' interrupted Otto, who had no great anxiety
to hear the song, ' the Prince is young ; he may yet
mend.'
'Not so young, by your leave,' cried Fritz. 'A
man of forty.'
' Thirty-six,' corrected Mr. Gottesheim.
'O,' cried Ottilia, in obvious disillusion, 'a man
of middle age ! And they said he was so handsome
when he was young ! '
' And bald, too,' added Fritz.
Otto passed his hand among his locks. At that
moment he was far from happy, and even the tedious
evenings at Mittwalden Palace began to smile upon
him by comparison.
'O, six-and-thirty ! ' he protested. 'A man is not
yet old at six-and-thirty. I am that age myself.'
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