Fiction > Book editions > London, 1888 - Prince Otto

A ROMANCE 205
'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 rephed, ' 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 myvpart 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 Eosen, 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 hus-
band by futihty, 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.'