DIEGO has said this last word with emphasis, but the PRINCESS has not noticed the sarcasm in his voice.
PRINCESS (shaking her head)
That is not my lot. I was destined, as you said, to be the wife of a great prince; and my dear father trained me to fill that office.
DIEGO
Well, and to be beautiful, young, radiant; to be a woman; is not that the office of a wife?
PRINCESS
I have not much experience. But my father told me, and I have gathered from books, that in the wives of princes, such gifts are often thrown away; that other women, supplying them, seem to supply them better. Look at my cousin's mother. I can remember her still beautiful, young, and most tenderly loving. Yet the Duke, my uncle, disdained her, and all she got was loneliness and heartbreak. An honourable woman, a princess, cannot compete with those who study to please and to please only. She must either submit to being ousted from her husband's love, or soar above it into other regions.
DIEGO (interested)
Other regions?
PRINCESS