Page:Stevenson - Prince Otto. A Romance.djvu/138

 same time do your work of government and behave myself like a little girl. Scandal is the atmosphere in which we live, we princes; it is what a prince should know. You play an odious part. Do you believe this rumour?’

‘Madam, should I be here?’ said Otto.

‘It is what I want to know!’ she cried, the tempest of her scorn increasing. ‘Suppose you did—I say, suppose you did believe it?’

‘I should make it my business to suppose the contrary,’ he answered.

‘I thought so. O, you are made of baseness!’ said she.

‘Madam,’ he cried, roused at last, ‘enough of this. You wilfully misunderstand my attitude; you outwear my patience. In the name of your parents, in my own name, I summon you to be more circumspect.’

‘Is this a request, monsieur mon mari?’ she demanded.

‘Madam, if I chose, I might command,’ said Otto.

‘You might, sir, as the law stands, make me prisoner,’ returned Seraphina. ‘Short of that you will gain nothing.’

‘You will continue as before?’ he asked.

‘Precisely as before,’ said she. ‘As soon as this comedy is over, I shall request the Freiherr von Gondremark to visit me. Do you under-