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 Princes 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 oppose you. I
could never learn that better part of love, to fight love's battles.
But yet the love was there. And now when this toy kingdom of ours
has fallen, first of all by my demerits, and next by your
inexperience, and we are here alone together, as poor as Job and
merely a man and a woman - let me conjure you to forgive the
weakness and to repose in the love. Do not mistake me!' he cried,
seeing her about to speak, and imposing silence with uplifted hand.
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