Fiction > Book editions > London, 1885 - Prince Otto

102 PRINCE OTTO
' It is new ? ' he asked. ' Vienna fashion.'
' ]\iint new,' rephecl the lady, ' for your
Highness's return. I felt young this morning ;
it was a premonition. But why. Prince, do you
ever leave us ? '
' For the pleasure of the return,' said Otto.
' I am like a dog ; I must bury my bone, and then
come back to gloat upon it.'
' 0, a bone ! Fie, what a comparison ! You
have brought back the manners of the wood,'
returned the lady.
'Madam, it is what the dog has dearest,' said
the Prince. ' But I observe Madame von Eosen.'
And Otto, leaving the group to which he
had been piping, stepped towards the embrasure
of a window where a lady stood.
The Countess von Eosen had hitherto been
silent, and a thought depressed, but on the
approach of Otto she began to brighten. She
was tall, slim as a nymph, and of a very air}^
carriage ; and her face, which was already
beautiful in repose, lightened and changed,
flashed into smiles, and glowed with lovely
colour at the touch of animation. She was a
good vocalist ; and, even in speech, her voice
commanded a great range of changes, the low
notes rich with tenor quality, the upper ringing,
on the brink of laughter, into music. A gem of
man}^ facets and variable hues of lire ; a woman