Sue," he said, feeling half-dazed, bruised and crushed by the terrible moral blow, which he had just received, "I ...

I do not quite understand.

Will you deign to explain ?" "There is naught to explain," she retorted coldly.

"Prince Amede d'Orleans loves me and I have plighted my troth to him." "Nay! I entreat your ladyship," he said, feeling--knowing the while, how useless it was to make an appeal against the infatuation of a hot-headed and impulsive girl, yet speaking with the courage which ofttimes is born of despair, "I beg of you, on my knees to listen.

This foreign adventurer ..." "Silence!" she retorted proudly, and drawing back from him, for of a truth he had sunk on his knees before her, "an you desire to be my friend, you must not breathe one word of slander against the man I love.
..." Then, as he said nothing, realizing, indeed, how futile would be any effort or word from him, she said, with growing enthusiasm, whilst her glowing eyes fixed themselves upon the gloom which had enveloped the mysterious apparition of her lover: "Prince Amede d'Orleans is the grandest, most selfless patriot this world hath ever known.