Fiction > Book editions > London, 1888 - Prince Otto
(236) Page 224
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224 PRINCE OTTO
forgive you is not needful : at least, we are now
separate for ever ; by your own act, you free me
from my willing bondage: I go free to prison.
This is the last that you will hear of me in love or
anger. I have gone out of your life ; you m.ay
breathe easy ; you have now rid yourself of
the husband who allowed you to desert him, oj
the Prince who gave you his rights, and of the
married lover who made it his pride to defend
you in your absence. How you have requited
him, your own heart more loudly tells you than
my words. There is a day coming when your
vain dreams will roll away like clouds, and you
will find yourself alone. Then you will remem-
ber ' Otto.'
She read with a great horror on her mind ;
that day, of which he wrote, was come. She
was alone ; she had been false, she had been
cruel ; remorse rolled in upon her ; and then
with a more piercing note, vanity bounded on
the stage of consciousness. She a dupe ! she
helpless ! she to have betrayed herself in seeking
to betray her husband ! she to have lived these
years upon flattery, grossly swallowing the bolus,
like a clown with sharpers ! she — Seraphina !
Her swift mind drank the consequences ; she
foresaw the coming fall, her public shame ; she
saw the odium, disgrace, and folly of her story
forgive you is not needful : at least, we are now
separate for ever ; by your own act, you free me
from my willing bondage: I go free to prison.
This is the last that you will hear of me in love or
anger. I have gone out of your life ; you m.ay
breathe easy ; you have now rid yourself of
the husband who allowed you to desert him, oj
the Prince who gave you his rights, and of the
married lover who made it his pride to defend
you in your absence. How you have requited
him, your own heart more loudly tells you than
my words. There is a day coming when your
vain dreams will roll away like clouds, and you
will find yourself alone. Then you will remem-
ber ' Otto.'
She read with a great horror on her mind ;
that day, of which he wrote, was come. She
was alone ; she had been false, she had been
cruel ; remorse rolled in upon her ; and then
with a more piercing note, vanity bounded on
the stage of consciousness. She a dupe ! she
helpless ! she to have betrayed herself in seeking
to betray her husband ! she to have lived these
years upon flattery, grossly swallowing the bolus,
like a clown with sharpers ! she — Seraphina !
Her swift mind drank the consequences ; she
foresaw the coming fall, her public shame ; she
saw the odium, disgrace, and folly of her story
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Early editions of Robert Louis Stevenson > Fiction > Book editions > Prince Otto > (236) Page 224 |
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Permanent URL | https://digital.nls.uk/90468088 |
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Form / genre: |
Written and printed matter > Books |
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Dates / events: |
1888 [Date published] |
Places: |
Europe >
United Kingdom >
England >
Greater London >
London
(inhabited place) [Place published] |
Subject / content: |
Fiction Romances |
Person / organisation: |
Chatto & Windus (Firm) [Publisher] Spottiswoode & Co. [Printer] Stevenson, Robert Louis, 1850-1894 [Author] |
Person / organisation: |
Stevenson, Robert Louis, 1850-1894 [Author] |
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