suitable, from a political point of view, to be your wife as I. It is
for the sake of your Throne and country that you must marry--and I ask
God to forgive me if I have done wrong in His sight by wedding you
simply for duty's sake. My father, your father, and all who are
connected with our two families desire our union, and have assured me
that, it is right and good for me to give up my life to yours. All
women's lives must be martyred to the laws made by men,--or so it seems
to me,--I cannot expect to escape from the general doom apportioned to
my sex. I therefore accept the destiny which transfers me to you as a
piece of human property for possession and command,--I accept it
freely, but I will not say gladly, because that would not be true. For
I do not love you,--I cannot love you! I want you to know that, and to
feel it, that you may not ask from me what I cannot give."

There were no tears in her eyes; she looked at him straightly and
steadfastly. He, in his turn, met her gaze fully,--his face had paled a
little, and a shadow of pained regret and commiseration darkened his
handsome features.

"You love someone else?" he asked, softly.

She rose from her chair and confronted him, a glow of passionate pride
flushing her cheeks and brow.

"No!" she said--"I would not be a traitor to you in so much as a
thought! Had I loved anyone else I would never have married you,--no!--
though you had been ten times a prince and king! No! You do not
understand. I come to you heartwhole and passionless, without a single
love-word chronicled in my girlhood's history, or a single incident you
may not know. I have never loved any man, because from my very