I
mean what I say, you are to ask for a second audience if you really want
one and if you ask for one you shall have it. But do not ask for it unless
you must.
"And now, is there anything else you desire to say, or to request or any
query you wish to put to me? If so, I authorize and command you to speak."
Choking, I muttered that I had nothing further to say.
"In that case," said the Emperor, standing up, "this interview is at an
end. You shall be conducted to your conference with the present owner of
your former estates, which I hope may turn out to your full satisfaction."
And he clapped his hands for a page.
The page conducted me through endless corridors, twisting and turning.
During that brief interval I did a great deal of very confused thinking. I
was dazed and puzzled. I had realized as he ended his harangue that it
would have been ridiculous to ask that man to change his mind or even
modify a decision. He was not that sort of Emperor. Yet he had pledged
himself to restore to me my estates or recompense me in cash. I felt that
he meant it; yet I knew that he would never have uttered that pledge if he
had felt that there was the remotest chance of his ever being called on to
fulfill it.
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