Collected works > Edinburgh edition, 1894-98 - Works of Robert Louis Stevenson > Volume 9, 1895 - Romances Volume II

BABES IN THE WOOD
innocence of a child. So, when at length he turned
a corner and beheld the Princess, it was his first
thought to reassure her of the purity of his respect,
and he at once ceased running and stood still. She,
upon her part, began to run to him with a little cry ;
then, seeing him pause, she paused also, smitten with
remorse ; and at length, with the most guilty timidity,
walked nearly up to where he stood.
' Otto,' she said, ' I have ruined all ! '
' Seraphina ! ' he cried with a sob, but did not
move, partly withheld by his resolutions, partly
struck stupid at the sight of her weariness and dis-
order. Had she stood silent, they had soon been
locked in an embrace. But she too had prepared
herself against the interview, and must spoil the
golden hour with protestations.
' All ! ' she went on, ' I have ruined all ! But,
Otto, in kindness you must hear me — not justify,
but own, my faults. I have been taught so cruelly ;
I have had such time for thought, and see the world
so changed. I have been blind, stone-blind ; I have
let all true good go by me, and lived on shadows.
But when this dream fell, and I had betrayed you,
and thought I had killed ' She paused. ' I
thought I had killed Gondremark,' she said with a
deep flush, 'and I found myself alone, as you said.'
The mention of the name of Gondremark pricked
the Prince's generosity like a spur. ' Well,' he cried,
' and whose fault was it but mine ? It was my duty
to be beside you, loved or not. But I was a skulker
in the grain, and found it easier to desert than to
251