"Excuse me ... atrophy ...?"

"Forgive me, Royal Highness. I mean stunted growth. Yes."

"I see, stunted growth. Stunting. That's it. The left hand is stunted.

But it's unheard of! I cannot understand it! Such a thing has never happened in my family! People talk nowadays about heredity."

Again the doctor looked silently and attentively at the lonely and domineering man, to whom the news had only just penetrated that people were talking lately about heredity. He answered simply: "Pardon me, Royal Highness, but in this case there can be no question of heredity."

"Really! You're quite sure!" said the Grand Duke rather mockingly. "That is one satisfaction. But will you be so kind as to tell me what there can be a question of, then."

"With pleasure, Royal Highness. The cause of the malformation is entirely a mechanical one. It has been caused through a mechanical constriction during the development of the embryo. We call such malformations constriction-formations, yes."

The Grand Duke listened with anxious disgust; he obviously feared the effect of each succeeding word on his sensitiveness. He kept his brows knit and his mouth open: the two furrows running down to his beard seemed deeper than ever. He said: "Constriction-formations, ... but how in the world ... I am quite sure every precaution must have been taken ..."

"Constriction-formations," answered Dr. Sammet, "can occur in various ways. But we can say with comparative certainty that in our case ... in this case it is the amnion which is to blame."

"I beg your pardon.... The amnion?"

"That is one of the foetal membranes, Royal Highness. Yes. And in certain circ.u.mstances the removal of this membrane from the embryo may be r.e.t.a.r.ded and proceed so slowly that threads and cords are left stretching from one to the other ... amniotic threads as we call them, yes. These threads may be dangerous, for they can bind and knot themselves round the whole of a child's limb; they can entirely intercept, for instance, the life-ducts of a hand and even amputate it.

Yes."

"Great heavens ... amputate it. So we must be thankful that it has not come to an amputation of the hand?"

"That might have happened. Yes. But all that has happened is an unfastening, resulting in an atrophy."

"And that could not be discovered, foreseen, prevented?"

"No, Royal Highness. Absolutely not. It is quite certain that no blame whatever attaches to anybody. Such constrictions do their work in secret. We are powerless against them. Yes."

"And the malformation is incurable? The hand will remain stunted?"

Dr. Sammet hesitated; he looked kindly at the Grand Duke.

"It will never be quite normal, certainly not," he said cautiously. "But the stunted hand will grow a little larger than it is at present, oh yes, it a.s.suredly will ..."

"Will he be able to use it? For instance ... to hold his reins or to make gestures, like any one else?..."

"Use it ... a little.... Perhaps not much. And he's got his right hand, that's all right."

"Will it be very obvious?" asked the Grand Duke, and scanned Dr.

Sammet's face earnestly. "Very noticeable? Will it detract much from his general appearance, think you?"

"Many people," answered Dr. Sammet evasively, "live and work under greater disadvantages. Yes."

The Grand Duke turned away, and walked once up and down the room. Dr.

Sammet deferentially made way for him, and withdrew towards the door. At last the Grand Duke resumed his position at the writing-table and said: "I have now heard what I wanted to know, doctor; I thank you for your report. You understand your business, no doubt about that. Why do you live in Grimmburg? Why do you not practise in the capital?"

"I am still young, Royal Highness, and before I devote myself to practising as a specialist in the capital I should like a few years of really varied practice, of general experience and research. A country town like Grimmburg affords the best opportunity of that. Yes."

"Very sound, very admirable of you. In what do you propose to specialise later on?"

"In the diseases of children, Royal Highness. I intend to be a children's doctor, yes."

"You are a Jew?" asked the Grand Duke, throwing back his head and s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g up his eyes.

"Yes, Royal Highness."

"Ah--will you answer me one more question? Have you ever found your origin to stand in your way, a drawback in your professional career? I ask as a ruler, who is especially concerned that the principle of 'equal chances for all' shall hold good unconditionally and privately, not only officially."

"Everybody in the Grand Duchy," answered Dr. Sammet, "has the right to work." But he did not stop there: moving his elbows like a pair of short wings, in an awkward, impa.s.sioned way, he made a few hesitating noises, and then added in a restrained but eager voice: "No principle of equalization, if I may be allowed to remark, will ever prevent the incidence in the life of the community of exceptional and abnormal men who are distinguished from the bourgeois by their n.o.bleness or infamy.

It is the duty of the individual not to concern himself as to the precise nature of the distinction between him and the common herd, but to see what is the essential in that distinction and to recognize that it imposes on him an exceptional obligation towards society. A man is at an advantage, not at a disadvantage, compared with the regular and therefore complacent majority, if he has one motive more than they to extraordinary exertions. Yes, yes," repeated Dr. Sammet. The double affirmative was meant to confirm his answer.

"Good ... not bad; very remarkable, anyhow," said the Grand Duke judicially. He found Dr. Sammet's words suggestive, though somewhat off the point. He dismissed the young man with the words: "Well, doctor, my time is limited. I thank you. This interview--apart from its painful occasion--has much rea.s.sured me. I have the pleasure of bestowing on you the Albrecht Cross of the Third Cla.s.s with Crown. I shall remember you.

Thank you."

This was what pa.s.sed between the Grimmburg doctor and the Grand Duke.

Shortly after Johann Albrecht left the castle and returned by special train to the capital, chiefly to show himself to the rejoicing populace, but also in order to give several audiences in the palace. It was arranged that he should return in the evening to the castle, and take up his residence there for the next few weeks.

All those present at the confinement at Grimmburg who did not belong to the Grand d.u.c.h.ess's suite were also accommodated in the special train of the bankrupt local railway, some of them travelling in the Sovereign's own saloon. But the Grand Duke drove from the castle to the station alone with von k.n.o.belsdorff, the Minister of State, in an open landau, one of the brown Court carriages with the little golden crown on the door. The white feathers in the hats of the cha.s.seurs in front fluttered in the summer breeze. Johann Albrecht was grave and silent on the journey; he seemed to be worried and morose. And although Herr von k.n.o.belsdorff knew that the Grand Duke, even in private, disliked anybody addressing him unasked and uninvited, yet at last he made up his mind to break the silence.

"Your Royal Highness," he said deprecatingly, "seems to take so much to heart the little anomaly which has been discovered in the Prince's body, ... and yet one would think that on a day like this the reasons for joy and proud thankfulness so far outweigh ..."

"My dear k.n.o.belsdorff," replied Johann Albrecht, with some irritation and almost in tears, "you must forgive my ill-humour; you surely do not wish me to be in good spirits. I can see no reason for being so. The Grand d.u.c.h.ess is going on well--true enough, and the child is a boy--that's a blessing too. But he has come into the world with an atrophy, a constriction, caused by amniotic threads. n.o.body is to blame, it is a misfortune; but misfortunes for which n.o.body is to blame are the most terrible of all misfortunes, and the sight of their Sovereign ought to awaken in his people other feelings than those of sympathy. The Heir Apparent is delicate, needs constant care. It was a miracle that he survived that attack of pleurisy two years ago, and it will be nothing less than a miracle if he lives to attain his majority. Now Heaven grants me a second son--he seems strong, but he comes into the world with only one hand. The other is stunted, useless, a deformity, he will have to hide it. What a drawback! What an impediment! He will have to brave it out before the world all his life. We must let it gradually leak out, so that it may not cause too much of a shock on his first appearance in public. No, I cannot yet get over it. A prince with one hand ..."

"'With one hand,'" said Herr von k.n.o.belsdorff. "Did your Royal Highness use that expression twice deliberately?"

"Deliberately?"

"You did not, then?... For the Prince has two hands, yet as one is stunted, one might if one liked also describe him as a prince with one hand."

"What then?"

"And one must almost wish, not that your Royal Highness's second son, but that the heir to the throne were the victim of this small malformation."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Why, your Royal Highness will laugh at me; but I am thinking of the gipsy woman."

"The gipsy woman? Please go on, my dear Baron!"

"Of the gipsy woman--forgive me!--who a hundred years ago prophesied the birth of a Prince to your Royal Highness's house--a prince 'with one hand'--that is how tradition puts it--and attached to the birth of that prince a certain promise, couched in peculiar terms."

The Grand Duke turned on his seat and stared, without saying a word, at Herr von k.n.o.belsdorff, at the outer corner of whose eyes the radiating wrinkles were playing. Then, "Mighty entertaining!" he said, and resumed his former att.i.tude.

"Prophecies," continued Herr von k.n.o.belsdorff, "generally come true to this extent, that circ.u.mstances arise which one can interpret, if one has a mind to, in their sense. And the broadness of the terms in which every proper prophecy is couched makes this all the more easy. 'With one hand'--that is regular oracle-style. What has actually happened is a moderate case of atrophy. But that much counts for a good deal, for what is there to prevent me, what is there to prevent the people, from a.s.suming the whole by this partial fulfilment, and declaring that the conditional part of the prophecy has been fulfilled? The people will do so; if not at once, at any rate if the rest of the prophecy, the actual promise, is in any way realised, it will put two and two together, as it always has done, in its wish to see what is written turn out true. I don't see how it is going to come about--the Prince is a younger son, he will not come to the throne, the intentions of fate are obscure. But the one-handed prince is there--and so may he bestow on us as much as he can."

The Grand Duke did not answer, secretly thrilled by dreams of the future of his dynasty.