Page:Stevenson - Prince Otto. A Romance.djvu/193

 and blush! There’s a wife for a man to marry and then lose! She’s a carnation, Otto. The soul is in her eyes.’

‘You have changed your note for Seraphina, I perceive,’ said Otto.

‘Changed it!’ cried the Doctor, with a flush. ‘Why, when was it different? But I own I admired her at the council. When she sat there silent, tapping with her foot, I admired her as I might a hurricane. Were I one of those who venture upon matrimony, there had been the prize to tempt me! She invites, as Mexico invited Cortez; the enterprise is hard, the natives are unfriendly—I believe them cruel too—but the metropolis is paved with gold and the breeze blows out of paradise. Yes, I could desire to be that conqueror. But to philander with von Rosen! never! Senses? I discard them; what are they?—pruritus! Curiosity? Reach me my Anatomy!’

‘To whom do you address yourself?’ cried Otto. ‘Surely you, of all men, know that I love my wife!’

‘O, love!’ cried Gotthold; ‘love is a great word; it is in all the dictionaries. If you had loved, she would have paid you back. What does she ask? A little ardour!’

‘It is hard to love for two,’ replied the Prince.