"If I love you?"
"What need is there to part? If you loved me enough."
"Oh," she cried, suffocating, as his meaning dawned on her, "Oh! Do you take me for that?"
She sprang back, her breast heaving, tears rising to her eyes.
"Take you for what, dear? For a woman who would love me better than all the world beside? Do you think that an insult?"
"You—you would make me your—," she could not bring herself to say the word.
Prince Mirko executed a masterly retreat.
"My child!" he cried in a horrified voice. "What do you imagine? I mean that where true love is, there can be no parting. Far or near, those who love are always united."
"Oh," said Ragna dubiously, "I thought you meant—"
Mirko fixed his mournful eyes upon her.