Page:Maria Felicia.pdf/65

 Emperor, and her eyes, with the same questioning clearness that he had noted before, sought his eyes, then dropped on the gold cup and remained there with a sad and peculiar expression.

“Why do you look so gravely at the token from my hand?” the Emperor asked with surprise.

“Because it seems to be the emblem of my life,” she pensively replied.

“How can I understand that?”

“The cup is gold, but—empty.”

“That your life is empty?” said the Emperor astonished. “That is what you say, so beautiful, so honored, so admired by all who come near you?”

“‘hat is the gold of the empty cup.”

“Only on you depends the filling of it with sweetly flowing love.”

“Would my Emperor advise the same to my brother?”

The Emperor hesitated.

“If your brother complained of the emptiness of life, I should advise him to become