'I hope you are aware of the cause,' said Brühl raising his hand to his heart.
'Let us not play a comedy,' said Frances, 'neither you can deceive me, nor I you. They commanded me to marry you, while I love another man; they command you to marry me, while you love another woman. Those are not very joyful things.'
'I, in love with another?' said Brühl, with well-assumed surprise.
'For a long time you have loved, and passionately, the Countess Moszynski; of this both she and her husband and everyone else, is aware, and you think that I, living in the court, do not know it?'
'If you wish me to confess that I was in love with her--'
'Oh! the old love is lasting.'
'But you tell me that you love.'
'Yes, I don't conceal that I love another man.'
'Whom?'
'There is no need to betray his and my secret.--Suffice it that I am sincere when I tell you of this.'