"Ah, she plays to-night then!" said Hermine, her lips quivering and brows contracting darkly.
"What is that to me--what is that to us, Hermine?"
I opened my arms, and my wife lay upon my breast. The whole long pent-up passion burst forth at once: she sobbed, she laughed, and cried: "Yes, yes, what is that to us? what is that to us?"
Her sweet face that lately had looked so pale and often so sad, now beamed with life and happiness: I thought I had never seen her so beautiful.
"You will create a furore," I said, playfully.
"So I mean," she answered. "There is no art in being fair when one is so happy."
And she threw herself again into my arms, and then hastened into her dressing-room, from which she presently returned in a simple charming toilet, such as she well knew how to make.
"Do you think I can let the prince see me so?" she asked, archly.
"Yes; any king in the world!"
"Even when----?"