'That is exactly what I have said,' replied the Princess. 'Your phrase is differently worded, but it comes to the same thing.'
'It would depend very much——'
'On what?'
'On how much she loved, and perhaps a little on how much she was loved.'
'Not at all,' said the Princess, decidedly; 'you cannot get more out of a nature than there is in it, and there is no sort of passion in the nature of my niece.'
He was silent again.
'She was admirably educated,' added the Princess, hastily, conscious of a remark not strictly becoming in herself; 'and her rare temperament is serene, well balanced, void of all excess. Heaven has mercifully eliminated from her almost all mortal errors.'
'By pride
Angels have fallen ere thy time!'
suggested Sabran.
'Angels, perhaps,' said the Princess, drily. 'But for women it is an admirable preservative, second only to piety.'