Page:In a winter city, by Ouida.djvu/75

 laugh that had melancholy in it and some irritation, "think for one moment of that woman's position, and say could anything ever induce her to change it—except one thing? Riches could add nothing to her; the highest rank could scarcely be any charm to her; she has everything she can want or wish for;—if she had the power of wishing left, which I doubt. The only spell that might enchain her would be love, if she have any capacity to feel it, which I doubt also. Well—granted love aroused,—what would poverty or riches in her lover matter to one who has secured for ever a golden pedestal of her own from which to survey the woes of the world? She refused the Prince of Deutchsland; that I know, since he told me himself; and men do not boast of rejections;—what position, pray, would ever tempt her since she refused Deutchsland? and he has all personal attractions, too, as well as his future crown."

"Still, granting all that, to make your lack of fortune so very conspicuous is to render your purpose conspicuous also, and to draw her attention to it unwisely," said the Duc, who viewed