'You know, princess, that in honouring me with your attachment, you imperil your sovereign rank?'
'I do.'
'What next?'
'Except that it is grievously in peril, nothing!'
'Have you known it all along?'
'Dimly-scarcely. To some extent I knew it, but it did not stand out in broad daylight. I have been learning the world's wisdom recently. Would you have had me neglect it? Surely much is due to my father? My relatives have claims on me. Our princely Houses have. My country has.'
'Oh, princess, if you are pleading——'
'Can you think that I am?'
The splendour of her high nature burst on me with a shock.
I could have fallen to kiss her feet, and I said indifferently: 'Not pleading, only it is evident the claims—I hate myself for bringing you in antagonism with them. Yes, and I have been learning some worldly wisdom; I wish for your sake it had not been so late. What made me overleap the proper estimate of your rank! I can't tell; but now that I know better the kind of creature—the man who won your esteem when you knew less of the world!'—