Fiction > Book editions > London, 1885 - Prince Otto

A ROMANCE 113
own resolutions ; for she continued to oppose
her counsellor, looking upon him out of half-
closed eyes and with the shadow of a sneer upon
her lips. ' What boys men are ! ' she said ;
' what lovers of big words ! Courage, indeed !
If you had to scour pans, Herr von Gondre-
mark, you would call it, I suppose. Domestic
Courage ? '
' I would, madam,' said the Baron, stoutly,
' if I scoured them well. I would put a good
name upon a virtue ; you will not overdo it ;
they are not so enchanting in themselves.'
' Well, but let me see,' she said. ' I wish to
understand your courage. Why we asked leave,
like children ! Our grannie in Berlin, our uncle
in Vienna, the whole family, have patted us on
the head and sent us forward. Courage ? I
wonder when I hear you ! '
' My Princess is unhke herself,' returned the
Baron. ' She has forgotten where the peril lies.
True, we have received encouragement on every
hand ; but my Princess knows too Avell on what
untenable conditions ; and she knows besides
how, in the publicity of the diet, these whispered
conferences are forgotten and disowned. The
danger is very real ' — he raged inwardly at
having to blow the very coal he had been
quenching — ' none the less real in that it is not
I