She watched the face of Wanda during the perusal of these lines, but she did not learn anything from its expression.
'He writes admirably,' she said, when she had read it through; 'and I think he is well fitted for a political career. They say that it is always best in politics not to be burdened with convictions, and he will be singularly free from such impediments, for he has none!'
'You are very harsh and unjust,' said the Princess, angrily. 'No person can pay you a more delicate compliment than lies in following your counsels, and yet you have nothing better to say about it than to insinuate an unscrupulous immorality.'
'Politics are always immoral.'
'Why did you recommend them to him, then?' said the Princess, sharply.
'They are better than some other things—than rouge et noir, for instance; but I did not perhaps do right in advising a mere man of pleasure to use the nation as his larger gaming-table.'
'You are beyond my comprehension! Your wire drawing is too fine for my dull eyesight. One thing is certainly quite clear to me, dull as I am; you live alone until you grow dissatisfied with everything. There is no possibility of pleasing a woman who disapproves of the whole living world!'
'The world sees few unmixed motives,' said Wanda, to which the Princess replied by an impatient movement.
'The post has brought fifty letters for you. I have been looking over the journals,' she answered. 'There is something you may also perhaps deign to read.'
She held out a French newspaper and pointed to a column in it.