That I mistook her for another who I supposed was on the other side of the channel was a natural mistake, as you will agree.

Is it not strange that I should mistake another to be the woman who is so soon to be my wife?
Is there not something behind this remarkable, unusual likeness?
Since when are two surpassingly beautiful women, born in different lands, of different parents, the exact likeness of each other ?" Now as this was a thing which had occupied my mind more than once, I immediately put aside the personal affair.

That could wait.

I threw my paper onto the table.
"Do you know, sir," said I, "that thought echoes my own ?" "Let us for the moment put ourselves into the background," said the Prince.

"What do you know about her Serene Highness the Princess Hildegarde; her history ?" "Very little; proceed." "But tell me what you know." "I know that her father was driven to a gambler's grave and that her mother died of a broken heart, and that the man who caused all this wishes to break the heart of the daughter, too." "Scandal, all scandal," said the Prince.