By return of post came the answer. The Excellency indeed would be welcome. The Regent--the Grand Duke Peter--had bidden him say that if the Excellency should be travelling for pleasure, as the nobility of his country often did, he would gladly be received by the Regent, who was himself a great _chasseur_ and _voyageur_. The Excellency would then see the never-to-be-sufficiently-beloved baby King. Of this glorious child he--Dmitry--found it difficult to write. It was as if the _Imperatorskoye_ breathed again in his spirit, while he was the portrait of his illustrious father, proving how deeply and well the _Imperatorskoye_ must have loved that father. If the Excellency could arrive in time for the Majesty's fifth birthday, on the 19th of February, there was to be a special ceremony in the great church which the Regent thought might be of interest to the Excellency.
Paul wired back he would travel night and day to be in time, and he instructed Dmitry to have the necessary arrangements made that he might go straight to the church, in case unforeseen delay should not permit him to arrive until that morning.
It was in a shaft of sunlight from the great altar window that Paul first saw his son. The tiny upright figure in its blue velvet suit, heavily trimmed with sable, standing there proudly. A fair, rosy-cheeked, golden-haired English child--the living reality of that miniature painted on ivory and framed in fine pearls, which made the holy of holies on Lady Henrietta's writing-table.
And as he gazed at his little son, while the organ pealed out a Te Deum and the sweet choir sang, a great rush of tenderness filled Paul's heart, and melted forever the icebergs of grief and pain.
And as he knelt there, watching their child, it seemed as if his darling stood beside him, telling him that he must look up and thank God, too--for in her spirit's constant love, and this glory of their son, he would one day find rest and consolation.
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Three Weeks, by Elinor Glyn