“May I ask you, fair countess, why you laugh thus to yourself?”
“Forgive me; I was not amused at the poor girl’s recognizing you, for that must have been a mistake, but I cannot help laughing when I think of your face at her words, ‘You are more deserving of imprisonment than I.’”
“Perhaps you think she was right.”
“I? Not at all. But how is it that she attacked you and not my brother-in-law?”
“Probably because she thought I looked a greater sinner than he.”
“That, I suppose, must have been the reason. One should never heed the talk of mad people.”
“You are sarcastic, but I take it all in good part. Perhaps I am as great a sinner as I look; but beauty should be merciful to me, for it is by beauty that I am led astray.”
“I wonder the empress does not shut up men as well as women.”
“Perhaps she hopes to see them all at her feet when there are no more girls left to amuse them.”
“That is a jest. You should rather say that she cannot forgive her own sex the lack of a virtue which she exercises so eminently, and which is so easily observed.”