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

WHAT HAPPENED
child that has breathed on a window, write and
obliterate, write and obliterate, idle words ! Talk
of it no more. That way, I tell you, madness lies.'
The speaker rose from his chair and then sat down
again. He laughed a little laugh, and then, chang-
ing his tone, resumed : ' Yes, dear child, we are not
here to do battle with giants ; we are here to be
happy like the flowers, if we can be. It is because
you could, that I have always secretly admired you.
Cling to that trade ; believe me, it is the right one.
Be happy, be idle, be airy. To the devil with all
casuistry ! and leave the state to Gondremark, as
heretofore. He does it well enough, they say ; and
his vanity enjoys the situation.'
' Gotthold,' cried Otto, ' what is this to me ? Use-
less is not the question ; I cannot rest at uselessness ;
I must be useful or I must be noxious — one or other.
I grant you the whole thing, prince and principality
alike, is pure absurdity, a stroke of satire ; and that
a banker or the man who keeps an inn has graver
duties. But now, when I have washed my hands of
it three years, and left all — labour, responsibility,
and honour and enjoyment too, if there be any — to
Gondremark and to — Seraphina— — ' He hesitated
at the name, and Gotthold glanced aside. * Well,'
the Prince continued, ' what has come of it ? Taxes,
army, cannon— why, it 's like a box of lead soldiers !
And the people sick at the folly of it, and fired with
the injustice ! And war, too — I hear of war — war in
this teapot ! What a complication of absurdity and
disgrace ! And when the inevitable end arrives —
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