ntempt, and I
will not endure it! It is enough that you martyr me to death with your
cutting coldness, your crushing indifference. The world, at least,
should not know that you hate me, and I will not be publicly humiliated
by you. What did I do this morning, for example? Why were you so cold
and scornful? Wherefore did you check your gay laugh as I entered the
room? wherefore did you refuse me the little flower you held in your
hand, and then throw it carelessly upon the floor?"

The princess looked at him with flashing eyes.

"You ask many questions, sir, and on many points," said she, sharply.
"I do not think it necessary to reply to them. Let us join our company."
She bowed proudly and advanced, but the prince held her back.

"Do not go," said he, entreatingly, "do not go. Say first that you
pardon me, that you are no longer angry. Oh, Wilhelmina, you do not know
what I suffer; you can never know the anguish which tortures my soul."

"I know it well; on the day of our marriage your highness explained
all. It was not necessary to return to this bitter subject. I have not
forgotten one word spoken on that festive occasion."

"What do you mean, Wilhelmina? How could I, on our wedding-day, have
made known to you the tortures which I now suffer, from which I was then
wholly free, and in whose possibility I did not believe?"

"It is possible that your sufferings have become more intolerable," said
the princess, coldly; "but you confided them to me fully and frankly at
that time. It was, indeed, the only time since our marriage we had any
thing to confide. Our only secret is that we do not love and never can
love each other; that only in the eyes of the world are we married.
There is no union of hearts."

"Oh, princess, your words are death!" And completely overcome, he sank
upon a chair.

Wilhelmina looked at him coldly, without one trace of emotion.

"Death?" said she, "why should I slay you? We murder only those whom we
love or hate. I neither love nor hate you."

"You are only, then, entirely indifferent to me," asked the prince.

"I think, your highness, this is what you asked of me, on our
wedding-day. I have endeavored to meet your wishes, and thereby, at
least, to prove to you that I had the virtue of obedience. Oh, I can
never forget that hour," cried the princess. "I came a stranger, alone,
ill from home-sickness and anguish of heart, to Berlin. I was betrothed
according to the fate of princesses. I w