"I have laid a wager with the Count von Fürstenberg that you are more beautiful than all the ladies at the court. Was I not an idiot? I allow you to answer me that. The King is to be the judge, and I shall win the thousand ducats."
Anna frowned, and turned from him in the greatest contempt.
"You villain!" she exclaimed angrily. "First you keep me shut up like a slave, and now you bring me forward like an actress on the stage, to help you to win your wager, by the brightness of my eyes and the smiles of my lips. Could any one conceive deeper infamy?"
"Do not spare me; you may say what you please," said Hoym, full of grief and remorse. "I deserve everything you can say. I possessed the most beautiful woman in the whole land; she smiled only for me. I was proud and happy. Then the devil made me drown my common sense in a few cups of wine."
He wrung his hands.
"I am going home," said the Countess. "I shall not remain here; I should be ashamed. Order my carriage!"
She moved towards the door; Hoym smiled bitterly.
"Your carriage!" he repeated. "You do not realize where you are. You are almost a prisoner, you cannot leave this house. I should not be surprised to find that guards had been placed before the door. Even should you succeed in escaping, the dragoons would pursue and bring you back. No one would dare to help you."
The Countess wrung her hands in despair. Hoym looked at her with mingled feelings of jealousy, grief, meanness, and sorrow.
"Listen to me," said he, touching her hand, "perhaps it is not so bad as I think. Those who wish to perish, can easily perish here. But you, if you like, need not look beautiful; you might look severe, forbidding; you might even look repulsive, and thus save yourself and me."