Page:Stevenson - Prince Otto. A Romance.djvu/192

 ‘Gotthold,’ said Otto, ‘I will hear no evil of the Countess.’

‘You will certainly hear no good of her,’ returned Gotthold; ‘and if you wish your wife to be the pink of nicety, you should clear your court of demi-reputations.’

‘The commonplace injustice of a by-word,’ Otto cried. ‘The partiality of sex. She is a demi-rep; what then is Gondremark? Were she a man’

‘It would be all one,’ retorted Gotthold roughly. ‘When I see a man, come to years of wisdom, who speaks in double-meanings and is the braggart of his vices, I spit on the other side. “You, my friend,” say I, “are not even a gentleman.” Well, she’s not even a lady.’

‘She is the best friend I have, and I choose that she shall be respected,’ Otto said.

‘If she is your friend, so much the worse,’ replied the Doctor. ‘It will not stop there.’

‘Ah!’ cried Otto, ‘there is the charity of virtue! All evil in the spotted fruit. But I can tell you, sir, that you do Madame von Rosen prodigal injustice.’

‘You can tell me!’ said the Doctor shrewdly. ‘Have you, tried? have you been riding the marches?’

The blood came into Otto’s face.

‘Ah!’ cried Gotthold, ‘look at your wife