“Olga,” he said timidly: “Olga, can you forgive?”
She fell forward insensible into his outstretched arms.
She had dreamed vainly of reunion for so long; and at last the dream had come true.
CHAPTER XLV.
“I’ll marry you, Wuffie,” said Mouse, three days later as she walked along a secluded alley of the Casino gardens, whilst the sun sparkled on marble balustrades and glossy orange leaves. “No; pray spare me those ecstasies, and for goodness sake don’t use German endearments; it sets my nerves on edge. Listen; there is a condition; perhaps you’ll set your back up at it, and if you do I shall marry somebody else. Il n’y a que l’embarras du choix.”
She only cared for Woffram’s consent because he was the only one amongst her adorers who could be brought with decent reason to accept Vanderlin’s money; the only one also who combined the poverty which could be bought with the high rank which would conceal the sale.
Besides, he was, as she said, a very pretty boy, with a Cupidon’s face and a grenadier’s frame, and she thought that he would make bon ménage, i.e., do exactly as he was told to do.
She knew society too well not to know that an English duchess is a really much greater person than a German Serenissime, but she was tired of being Duchess of Otterbourne on twopence-halfpenny a year, and being under tutelage and coercion; and there were one or two royal princesses whom she especially detested to whom it would be amusing to be cousin by marriage, she could scratch them so deftly with the softest of velvet paws.
On the whole, she thought it was the best thing to do, so she spoke coldly and rudely to the young prince as he walked beside her. It was the way she managed her men, and it had always succeeded—except once.
“Every wish of yours is law,” said Prince Woffram, radiant and submissive, for he was extremely in love and had never seen any way of inducing his syren to accept his sword and his title, which were all he possessed in the world. She had always told him that he was a nice-looking boy and wore a pretty uniform, and might follow her about and carry her wraps, but was good for nothing more serious.