eam of this end.
To-morrow I shall be laughed at, and I cannot defend myself as a man
can. I must submit; I must smile and cover my chagrin. O, Monsieur,
do not speak to me of love; there is nothing in my heart but rage and
bitterness. To stoop as I have stooped, and in vain! I am defeated; I
must remain passive; like a whipped child I am driven away. Talk not of
love to me. I am without illusion." She fell to weeping, and to him she
was lovelier in her tears than ever in her smiles. For would she have
shown this weakness to any but himself, and was it not a sign that he
was not wholly indifferent to her?

"Madame, what is it?" he cried, on his knees before her. "What is it? Do
you wish a crown? Find me a kingdom, and I will buy it for you. Be mine,
and woe to those who dare to laugh! Ah, could I but convince you that
love is above crowns and kingdoms, the only glimpse we have on earth
of Paradise. There is no boundary to the dreams; no horizons; a vast,
beautiful wilderness, and you and I together. There are no storms, no
clouds. Ambition, the god of schemes, finds no entrance. Ah, how I love
you! Your face is ever before me, waking or sleeping. All thoughts
are merged into one, and that is of you. Self has dropped out of my
existence. Forget that you are a princess; remember only that you are a
woman, and that I love you."

Love has the key to eloquence. Madame forgot her vanished dreams; the
bitterness in her heart subsided. That mysterious, indefinable thrill,
which every woman experiences when a boundless love is laid at her feet,
passed through her, leaving her sensible to a delicious languor. This
man was strong in himself, yet weak before her, and from his weakness
she gained a visible strength. Convention was nothing to him; that she
was of royal blood was still less. What other man would have dared her
wrath as he had done?

Nobility, she thought, was based on the observance of certain laws.
Around the central star were lesser stars, from which the central star
drew its radiance. Whenever one of these stars deviates from its orbit,
the glory of the central star is diminished. To accept the love of the
Englishman would be a blow to the pride of Austria. She smiled.

"Monsieur," she said, in a hesitating voice, "Monsieur, I am indeed a
woman. You ask me if I can forget that I offered you my lips? No. Nor do
I wish to. Why did I permit you to kiss me? I do not know. I could not
analyze the impulse if I tried.