In fact, there were a thousand matters which occupied me to
exhaustion. And, through it all, I was trying to get familiar with the
organization and administration and methods of the Valerian Army, so as
to be fitted to discharge the duties of my high rank. I confess this
was my most congenial labor. If I might have been simply a soldier
Archduke, I think I would have been entirely satisfied.
After a few weeks I had taken up my residence in the Epsau Palace--one
of my recent inheritances--and there maintained my own Archducal Court.
It was a bit hard for me to take myself seriously and to accept calmly
the obsequious deference accorded me by everyone. I fear I smiled many
times when I should have looked royally indifferent; and was royally
indifferent when I should have smiled. I know there were scores of
instances when I felt like kicking some of the infernally omnipresent
flunkeys down the stairs. But I did not; for I knew that the poor
devils were doing only their particular duty in the manner particularly
proper.
Yet, there were compensations, so many and so satisfying, I never, for
a moment, considered a return to my former estate. I was--I admit
it--enamored of my rank and power; and, it may be, even of that very
obsequiousness and flattery which I thought I despised.
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