Page:The Czar, A Tale of the Time of the First Napleon.djvu/328

318 you can serve him best. So you must face your doubts and answer them, one way or the other. God will be with you, and lead you to the light. But in the meantime you need not sit idle."

"True, most true. I am longing to work for God, who has done so much for me. Besides, what right have I to sit with folded hands, a burden upon my aunt? 'If any man will not work, neither shall he eat.' But it is much easier to say what I can't do than what I can. My mother thinks so few things possible to one who has the misfortune, as I feel disposed to call it, of being nobly born."

"What would you like to do, in your heart of hearts, Henri?"

"If I tell you, will you laugh at me, Prince Ivan?"

"Not I! Why should I? When I was a boy I could plough a straight furrow, and I was a fair hand with the reaping-hook. You cannot fancy any occupation lowlier than these."

"I should like to use, not a plough, but a pencil and pair of compasses. At Vilna I lodged in the house of an architect, and spent much of my leisure over his books. I was always fond of mathematics, which are useful in that line. Prince Ivan, if you want to build a palace on your new estate, I shall be most happy to design it for you."

Ivan made him a profound bow, then turned and laid his hand on his shoulder. "Come to Russia with us," he said warmly. "Never was there a better opening for your genius. Think of all Moscow to be rebuilt! Russia ought to be the El Dorado of architects for twenty years to come."

"Are you jesting, Prince Ivan?"

"Never was I more in earnest. The Czar will give you a welcome; and the rather because he shares your tastes himself. In his brief moments of leisure he often amuses himself by taking up a pencil and drawing a design for a public building. So he knows how to appreciate what is good."