Page:Legends of Rubezahl, and Other Tales (1845).djvu/263

 claim Count Rupert could have to a heart which, she understood, was already the just property of another, and was, moreover, indignant that her favourite should have been carrying on a love correspondence with two nobles of the Court at one and the same time, a circumstance highly discreditable in itself, and which in those days was exceedingly calculated to bring on a duel, à l’outrance, no lover being disposed to relinquish his supposed claims without bloodshed. However, as both parties had appealed to her, she consoled herself with the hope that both would implicitly submit to her decision.

Having dismissed Count Rupert, and retired to her private apartment, she sent for Lucretia, and on her arrival thus addressed her, in an angry tone: “Young lady, what confusion is this you are creating at my Court with your mischievous flirtations? Two noblemen, within a few hours the one after the other, have applied to me for your hand, each of whom assures me he has received from you a favourable consideration. What means this? Do you imagine that you are, with impunity, to play such tricks as these with knights and nobles? first accepting their homage, and then contumeliously discarding them? Think you it becomes a modest girl to have two lovers at once in her train, both of whom she amuses herself with