The first day of his idleness he wandered into the back room of the cobbler’s shop near by, where the butter-seller from the corner, the maker of artificial flowers for graves, and the cobbler himself were gathered, and listened without protest to such talk as would have roused him once to white anger.
But the iron had not yet gone very deep, and one thing he would not permit. It was when, in the conversation, one of them attacked the King. Then indeed he was roused to fury.
“A soldier and a gentleman,” he said. “For him I lost this leg of mine, and lost it without grieving. When I lay in the hospital he himself came, and--”
A burst of jeering laughter greeted this, for he had told it many times. Told it, because it was all he had instead of a leg, and although he could not walk on it, certainly it had supported him through many years.
“As for the little Crown Prince,” he went on firmly, “I have seen him often. He came frequently to the Opera. He has a fine head and a bright smile. He will be a good king.”
Once upon a time a student named Haeckel had occasionally backed him up in his defense of the royal family. But for some reason or other Haeckel came no more, and old Adelbert missed him. He had inquired for him frequently.
“Where is the boy Haeckle?” he had asked one day. “I have not seen him lately.”
No one had replied. But a sort of grim silence settled over the little room. Old Adelbert, however, was not discerning.
“Perhaps, as a student, he worked too hard” he had answered his own question. “They must both work and play hard, these students. A fine lot of young men. I have watched them at the Opera. Most of them preferred Italian to German music.”
But, that first day of idleness, when he had left the cobbler’s, he resolved not to return. They had not been unfriendly, but he had seen at once there was a difference. He was no longer old Adelbert of the Opera. He was an old man only, and out of work.
He spent hours that first free afternoon repairing his frayed linen and his shabby uniform, with his wooden leg stretched out before him and his pipe clutched firmly in his teeth. Then, freshly shaved and brushed, he started on a painful search after work. With no result. And, indeed, he was hopeless before he began. He was old and infirm. There was little that he had even the courage to apply for.