"You swear that you will marry no other than the one I name? You swear that you will overcome all obstacles, and be withheld by no prayers or reproaches?"
"I swear it."
"On the word of a count?"
"On the word of a count. Show me the lady, and I will marry her against the will of the whole world."
"But if the lady should not love you?"
"Why should I care? Do I love her? Do I not marry her for your sake alone?"
"Ah! my friend," cried Madame von Brandt, "I see that we understand one another. Come, and I will show you your bride."
She placed her arm in his, and drew him away. Her eye gleamed with a wild, menacing light, and she said sneeringly to herself, "I have selected a rich husband for my beautiful Laura, and have bartered my soul for diamonds and cashmeres, and the gratitude of an empress."