“Because I am anxious to travel.”
“But you have already made the tour of the world.”
“Of the New World, madame, but not of the Old.”
“A race of iron, with hearts of steel, are you Taverneys. You and your sister are terrible people—you go not for the sake of traveling, but to leave me. Your sister said she was called by religions duty; it was a pretext. However, she wished to go, and she went. May she be happy! You might be happy here, but you also wish to go away.”
“Spare us, I pray you, madame; if you could read our hearts, you would find them full of unlimited devotion towards you.”
“Oh!” cried the queen, “you are too exacting; she takes the world for a heaven, where one should only live as a saint; you look upon it as a hell—and both fly from it; she because she finds what she does not seek, and you because you do not find what you do seek. Am I not right? Ah! M. de Taverney, allow human beings to be imperfect, and do not expect royalty to be superhuman. Be more tolerant, or, rather, less egotistical.” She spoke earnestly, and continued: “All I know is, that I loved Andrée, and that she left me; that I valued you, and you are about to do the same. It is humiliating to see two such people abandon my court.”
“Nothing can humiliate persons like your majesty. Shame does not reach those placed so high.”
“What has wounded you?” asked the queen.
“Nothing, madame.”
“Your rank has been raised, your fortune was progressing.”