Page:Marquis de Sade - Adelaide of Brunswick.djvu/32

 which a woman has for a man; those little things which convince a man that his wife really loves him."

"But all that will come, Milord; the princess is still young. The habit of living with you will soon change what now seems like a duty into pleasure, and the love which will come, will be all the more lasting."

"Thus it is only a question of time until I get my happiness? I would like to have you go into the depths of the situation and to study it and then tell me what you find, and then I will attempt to establish my ideas on your report."

"Ah, Milord," cried Mersburg, "do you realize the responsibility that Your Highness is putting on me? Adelaide will detest me if she ever discovers my part in it. She is either innocent or guilty. If she is innocent then any suspicions of her will make her furious, and if she is guilty, she will never pardon me for discovering it and revealing it to you. Taking advantage of the love which she knows you have for her, she will demand my punishment for having sought out her faults, whether they exist or not."

"Will not my protection guarantee you safety?"

"No, Milord. She will be eager to destroy that protection and from that time on, nothing could preserve me from her anger. She will be able to persuade you to abandon me, and I will become the object of your anger as well as her hatred."

"There is nothing comforting in what you are saying, my dear count. In the first case, you say she would become irritated if she were innocent, because of the suspicions. That way of seeing the situation does not seem right, because your efforts will only prove her innocent. How can she become angry if she is proven worthy to be my wife? And since you seem to fear so much the results of your finding the second case to be true, it makes me think you are already convinced of the truth of this hypothesis."

"Ah, My Prince, how quickly does jealousy seize upon anything which can nourish it! There can be no doubt about the virtue of your wife, and that should be enough to give you all the tranquility you need."

"So be it," said the prince, "but what I propose to you will insure this tranquility, and I require you to do what I ordered."