we came to this distasteful but most necessary
step. Ah, madam, believe me, I am not unworthy to be your ally; I know
you have qualities to which I am a stranger, and count them the best
weapons in the armoury of our alliance:--the girl in the queen--pity,
love, tenderness, laughter; the smile that can reward. I can only
command; I am the frowner. But you! And you have the fortitude to
command these comely weaknesses, to tread them down at the call of
reason. How often have I not admired it even to yourself! Ay, even to
yourself,' he added tenderly, dwelling, it seemed, in memory on hours of
more private admiration. 'But now, madam--'

'But now, Herr von Gondremark, the time for these declarations has gone
by,' she cried. 'Are you true to me? are you false? Look in your heart
and answer: it is your heart I want to know.'

'It has come,' thought Gondremark. 'You, madam!' he cried, starting
back--with fear, you would have said, and yet a timid joy. 'You!
yourself, you bid me look into my heart?'

'Do you suppose I fear?' she cried, and looked at him with such a
heightened colour, such bright eyes, and a smile of so abstruse a
meaning, that the Baron discarded his last doubt.

'Ah, madam!' he cried, plumping on his knees. 'Seraphina! Do you permit
me? have you divined my secret? It is true--I put my life with joy into
your power--I love you, love with ardour, as an equal, as a mistress, as
a brother-in-arms, as an adored, desired, sweet-hearted woman. O Bride!'
he cried, waxing dithyrambic, 'bride of my reason and my senses, have
pity, have pity on my love!'

She heard him with wonder, rage, and then contempt. His words offended
her to sickness; his appearance, as he grovelled bulkily upon the floor,
moved her to such laughter as we laugh in nightmares.

'O shame!' she cried. 'Absurd and odious! What would the Countess say?'

That great Baron Gondremark, the excellent politician, remained for some
little time upon his knees in a frame of mind which perhaps we are
allowed to pity. His vanity, within his iron bosom, bled and raved. If
he could have blotted all, if he could have withdrawn part, if he had not
called her bride--with a roaring in his ears, he thus regretfully
reviewed his declaration. He got to his feet tottering; and then, in
that first moment when a dumb agony finds a vent in words, and the tongue
betrays the inmost and worst of a man, he permitted himself a retort
which, for six we