“Well, then, if you will have the full truth, you shall. So long as I thought you were the Emperor I set myself with all my woman’s wit and cunning to make you love me. I planned it, schemed for it, and knowing all that it might mean, I yearned for it. I told you I would have made any sacrifice to have won your power to my side. Now, perhaps, you see how base a thing I am.”
“Well, you have succeeded, and have made me love you—though Heaven knows I needed no making. What then?”
“My God, will nothing open your eyes and drive you from me?”
“One thing; but you have not said it yet.”
She looked at me, and emotion seemed to master her till she said passionately—
“You are no use to me. Had you been in truth the Emperor, as God is my judge, I would have been your mistress. But being what you are, I will not be your wife.”
“You are very anxious to blacken yourself in my eyes,” I said after a pause.
“You at any rate shall know the truth—see me for what I am.”
“Why?”
“I wish you to know it.”