“Tarry a little, my Princess,” said the Duke; “and remember, that you have voluntarily entered yourself as pledge for another; and are justly subjected to any penalty which it is my pleasure to exact. None must brave Buckingham with impunity.”
“I am in no hurry to depart, if your Grace hath any commands for me.”
“What! are you neither afraid of my resentment, nor of my love, fair Zarah?” said the Duke.
“Of neither, by this glove,” answered the lady. “Your resentment must be a pretty passion indeed, if it could stoop to such a helpless object as I am; and for your love—good lack! good lack!”
“And why good lack with such a tone of contempt, lady?” said the Duke, piqued in spite of himself. “Think you Buckingham cannot love, or has never been beloved in return?”
“He may have thought himself beloved,” said the maiden; “but by what slight creatures!—things whose heads could be rendered giddy by a playhouse rant—whose brains were only filled with red-heeled shoes and satin buskins—and who run altogether mad on the argument of a George and a star.”
“And are there no such frail fair ones in your climate, most scornful Princess?” said the Duke.
“There are,” said the lady; “but men rate them as parrots and monkeys—things without either sense or soul, head or heart. The nearness we bear to the sun has purified, while it strengthens, our passions. The icicles of your frozen climate shall as soon hammer hot bars into ploughshares, as shall the foppery and folly of your pretended gallantry make an instant’s impression on a breast like mine.”
“You speak like one who knows what passion is,” said the Duke. “Sit down, fair lady, and grieve not that I detain you. Who can consent to part with a tongue of so much melody, or an eye of such expressive eloquence!—You have known then what it is to love?”
“I know—no matter if by experience, or through the report of others—but I do know, that to love, as I would love, would be to yield not an iota to avarice, not one inch to vanity, not to sacrifice the slightest feeling to interest or to ambition; but to give up all to fidelity of heart and reciprocal affection.”