Fiction > Book editions > London, 1885 - Prince Otto

A KOMAXCE 21
'Well, sir, he leaves them both to an ad-
venturer from East Prussia,' pursued the farmer ;
' leaves the girl to be seduced and to go on from
bad to worse, till her name's become a taproom
by-word, and she not yet twenty ; leaves the
country to be overtaxed, and bullied with arma-
ments, and jockied into war '
' War ! ' cried Otto.
' So they say, sir ; those that watch their
ongoings, say to war,' asseverated Killian. ' Well,
sir, that is very sad ; it is a sad thing for this
poor, wicked girl to go down to liell with
people's curses ; it's a sad thing for a tight little
happy country to be misconducted ; but who-
ever may complain, I humbly conceive, sir, that
this Otto cannot. What he has worked for,
that he has got'*-and may God have pity on his
soul, for a great and a silly sinner's ! '
' He has broke his oath ; then he is a per-
jurer. He takes the money and leaves the
work ; why, then plainly he's a thief. A
cuckold he was before, and a fool by birth.
Better me that ! ' cried Fritz, and snapped his
lingers.
' And now, sir, you will see a little,' con-
tinued the farmer, ' why we think so poorly of
this Prince Otto. There's such a thing as a
man being pious and honest in the private way ;
iind there is such a thing, sir, as a public