glory and perhaps infamy. Do not then wonder that I will not yield my
chance of the brighter fortune without an effort. Once more I appeal
to your pity, if not to your love. Were Iduna mine, were she to hold
out but the possibility of her being mine, there is no career, solemnly
I avow what solemnly I feel, there is no career of which I could not be
capable, and no condition to which I would not willingly subscribe.
But this certainty, or this contingency, I must have: I cannot exist
without the alternative. And now upon my knees, I implore her to grant
it to me!"

"Nicaeus," said Iduna, "this continued recurrence to a forbidden subject
is most ungenerous."

"Alas! Iduna, my life depends upon a word, which you will not speak,
and you talk of generosity. No! Iduna, it is not I that I am
ungenerous."

"Let me say then unreasonable, Prince Nicaeus."

"Say what you like, Iduna, provided you say that you are mine."

"Pardon me, sir, I am free."

"Free! You have ever underrated me, Iduna. To whom do you owe this
boasted freedom?"

"This is not the first time," remarked Iduna, "that you have reminded
me of an obligation, the memory of which is indelibly impressed upon my
heart, and for which even the present conversation cannot make me feel
less grateful. I can never forget that I owe all that is dear to