ten o'clock before
Surely Max did not imagine that I deemed it likely I should ever ascend the throne ! I could not believe that he would be so foolish as to attach any credence to the old superstition concerning the Michael cross , or that even if he did , he would be weak enough to allow it to embitter his life . If I live to be a hundred I shall not forget that evening , every detail connected with which , as I have shown , is engraved upon my memory . It was considerably after ten o'clock before my father and Marquart joined us in the drawing-room . The former seemed in excellent spirits , the latter scarcely so happy . Doubtless he had come expecting to find his old master pining to be back in his own country once more . His shrewd common sense , however , must have shown him , before they had been very long together , that this was far from being the case .