I am a person of precaution.' 'It would appear so,' she said, with a flash of her occasional repugnance to the man; and then after a pause, 'Herr von Gondremark,' she added, 'I recoil from this extremity.' 'I share your Highness's repugnance,' answered he.

'But what would you have?
We are defenceless, else.' 'I see it, but this is sudden.

It is a public crime,' she said, nodding at him with a sort of horror.
'Look but a little deeper,' he returned, 'and whose is the crime ?' 'His!' she cried.

'His, before God! And I hold him liable.

But still--' 'It is not as if he would be harmed,' submitted Gondremark.
'I know it,' she replied, but it was still unheartily.
And then, as brave men are entitled, by prescriptive right as old as the world's history, to the alliance and the active help of Fortune, the punctual goddess stepped down from the machine.