Page:Stevenson - Prince Otto. A Romance.djvu/137

 you in vain—a bitter thing for a husband; I have laid myself open that I might speak without offence. And now that I have begun, I will go on and finish.’

‘I demand it,’ she said. ‘What is this about?’

Otto flushed crimson. ‘I have to say what I would fain not,’ he answered. ‘I counsel you to see less of Gondremark.’

‘Of Gondremark? And why?’ she asked.

‘Your intimacy is the ground of scandal, madam,’ said Otto, firmly enough—‘of a scandal that is agony to me, and would be crushing to your parents if they knew it.’

‘You are the first to bring me word of it,’ said she. ‘I thank you.’

‘You have perhaps cause,’ he replied. ‘Perhaps I am the only one among your friends’

‘O, leave my friends alone,’ she interrupted. ‘My friends are of a different stamp. You have come to me here and made a parade of sentiment. When have I last seen you? I have governed your kingdom for you in the meanwhile, and there I got no help. At last, when I am weary with a man’s work, and you are weary of your playthings, you return to make me a scene of conjugal reproaches—the grocer and his wife! The positions are too much reversed; and you should understand, at least, that I cannot at the