Page:Stevenson - Prince Otto. A Romance.djvu/134

 enjoyed myself too much,’ he said, ‘since enjoyment is the word. And yet there were much to say upon the other side. You must suppose me desperately fond of hunting. But indeed there were days when I found a great deal of interest in what it was courtesy to call my government. And I have always had some claim to taste; I could tell live happiness from dull routine; and between hunting, and the throne of Austria, and your society, my choice had never wavered, had the choice been mine. You were a girl, a bud, when you were given me’

‘Heavens!’ she cried, ‘is this to be a love-scene?’

‘I am never ridiculous,’ he said; ‘it is my only merit; and you may be certain this shall be a scene of marriage à la mode. But when I remember the beginning, it is bare courtesy to speak in sorrow. Be just, madam: you would think me strangely uncivil to recall these days without the decency of a regret. Be yet a little juster, and own, if only in complaisance, that you yourself regret that past.’

‘I have nothing to regret,’ said the Princess. ‘You surprise me. I thought you were so happy.’

‘Happy and happy, there are so many hundred ways,’ said Otto. ‘A man may be