"Tis you they threaten! Your rascal and mine have laid their heads together and condemned you. But they reckoned without you and me. We make a partie carrée, Prince, in love and politics. They lead an ace, but we shall trump it. Come, partner, shall I draw my card?'
`Madam,' he said, `explain yourself. Indeed I fail to comprehend.'
`See, then,' said she; and handed him the order.
He took it, looked upon it with a start; and then, still without speech, he put his hand before his face. She waited for a word in vain.
`What!' she cried, `do you take the thing down-heartedly? As well seek wine in a milk-pail as love in that girl's heart! Be done with this, and be a man. After the league of the lions, let us have a conspiracy of mice, and pull this piece of machinery to ground. You were brisk enough last night when nothing was at stake and all was frolic. Well, here is better sport; here is life indeed.'
He got to his feet with some alacrity, and his face, which was a little flushed, bore the marks of resolution.
`Madame von Rosen,' said he, `I am neither unconscious nor ungrateful; this is the true continuation of your friendship; but I see that I must disappoint your expectations. You seem to expect from me some effort of resistance; but why should I resist? I have not much to gain; and now that I have read this paper, and the last of a fool's paradise is shattered, it would be hyperbolical to speak of loss in the same breath with Otto of Grünewald. I have no party, no policy; no pride, nor anything to be proud of. For what benefit or principle under Heaven do you expect me to contend? Or would you have me bite and scratch like a trapped weasel?
No, madam; signify to those who sent you my readiness to go. I would at least avoid a scandal.'
`You go? -- of your own will, you go?' she cried.
`I cannot say so much, perhaps,' he answered; `but I go with good alacrity. I have desired a change some time; behold one offered me! Shall I refuse? Thank God, I am not so destitute of humour as to make a tragedy of such a farce.' He flicked the order on the table. `You may signify my readiness,' he added grandly.
`Ah,' she said, `you are more angry than you own.'
`I, madam? angry?' he cried. `You rave! I have no cause for anger.
In every way I have been taught my weakness, my instability, and my unfitness for the world. I am a plexus of weaknesses, an impotent Prince, a doubtful gentleman; and you yourself, indulgent as you are, have twice reproved my levity. And shall I be angry? I may feel the unkindness, but I have sufficient honesty of mind to see the reasons of this coup d'état .'
`From whom have you got this?' she cried in wonder. `You think you have not behaved well? My Prince, were you not young and handsome, I should detest you for your virtues. You push them to the verge of commonplace.
And this ingratitude -- `
`Understand me, Madame von Rosen,' returned the Prince, flushing a little darker, `there can be here no talk of gratitude, none of pride.
You are here, by what circumstance I know not, but doubtless led by your kindness, mixed up in what regards my family alone. You have no knowledge what my wife, your sovereign, may have suffered; it is not for you -- no, nor for me -- to judge. I own myself in fault; and were it otherwise, a man were a very empty boaster who should talk of love and start before a small humiliation. It is in all the copybooks that one should die to please his lady-love; and shall a man not go to prison?'
`Love? And what has love to do with being sent to gaol?' exclaimed the Countess, appealing to the walls and roof. `Heaven knows I think as much of love as any one; my life would prove it; but I admit no love, at least for a man, that is not equally returned. The rest is moonshine.'
`I think of love more absolutely, madam, though I am certain no more tenderly, than a lady to whom I am indebted for such kindnesses,' returned the Prince. `But this is unavailing. We are not here to hold a court of troubadours.'
`Still,' she replied, `there is one thing you forget. If she conspires with Gondremark against your liberty, she may conspire with him against your honour also.'
`My honour?' he repeated. `For a woman, you surprise me. If I have failed to gain her love or play my part of husband, what right is left me? or what honour can remain in such a scene of defeat? No honour that I recognise. I am become a stranger. If my wife no longer loves me, I will go to prison, since she wills it; if she love another, where should I be more in place? or whose fault is it but mine? You speak, Madame von Rosen, like too many women, with a man's tongue. Had I myself fallen into temptation (as, Heaven knows, I might) I should have trembled, but still hoped and asked for her forgiveness; and yet mine had been a treason in the teeth of love. But let me tell you, madam,' he pursued, with rising irritation, `where a husband by futility, facility, and ill-timed humours has outwearied his wife's patience, I will suffer neither man nor woman to misjudge her. She is free; the man has been found wanting.'
`Because she loves you not?' the Countess cried. `You know she is incapable of such a feeling.'
`Rather, it was I who was born incapable of inspiring it,' said Otto.
Madame von Rosen broke into sudden laughter. `Fool,' she cried, `I am in love with you myself!'
`Ah, madam, you are most compassionate,' the Prince retorted, smiling. `But this is waste debate. I know my purpose. Perhaps, to equal you in frankness, I know and embrace my advantage. I am not without the spirit of adventure. I am in a false position -- so recognised by public acclamation: do you grudge me, then, my issue?'
`If your mind is made up, why should I dissuade you?' said the Countess. `I own, with a bare face, I am the gainer. Go, you take my heart with you, or more of it than I desire; I shall not sleep at night for thinking of your misery. But do not be afraid; I would not spoil you, you are such a fool and hero.'