She interrupted him by a swift gesture, while the rich colour swept
over her face in a warm wave.

"Understand nothing"--she said,--"but this--that I do not love you,
because I can love no man! For the rest I am your wife; and as your
wife I give myself to you and your nation wholly and in all things--
save love!"

He advanced and took her hands in his.

"This is a strange bargain!" he said, and gently kissed her.

She answered nothing,--only a faint shiver trembled through her as she
endured the caress. For a moment or two he surveyed her in silence,--it
was a singular and novel experience for him, as a future king, to be
the lawful possessor of a woman's beauty, and yet with all his
sovereignty to be unable to waken one thrill of tenderness in the
frozen soul imprisoned in such exquisite flesh and blood. He was
inclined to disbelieve her assertions,--surely he thought, there must
be emotion, feeling, passion in this fair creature, who, though she
seemed a goddess newly descended from inaccessible heights of heaven
was still _only_ a woman? And upon the whole he was not ill-
pleased with the curious revelation she had made of herself. He
preferred the coldness of women to their volcanic eruptions, and would
take more pains to melt the snow of reserve than to add fuel to the
flame of ardour.

"You have been very frank with me," he said at last, after a pause, as
he loosened her hands and moved a little apart from her--"And whether