"There the vindication would be more dishonoring than the accusation--so you must renounce that. You see that you have been betrayed into a circulus vitiosus from which you can no longer escape. Wherever you turn--you have but the choice between poverty or disgrace,--unless you decide to become Duchess of Metten-Barnheim and thus, at one bound, spring from the muddy waves which now threaten you, into the pure, unapproachable sphere of power and dignity to which you belong. My arms are always open to save you--my heart is ready to love and to protect you--can you still hesitate?"
The tortured woman threw herself at his feet. "Duke--Emil--save me--I am yours!"
[CHAPTER XXVIII.]
PARTING
Several minutes have passed--to the duke a world of happiness--to the countess of misery. The duke bent over the beautiful trembling form to clasp her in his arms for the first time.
"Have I won you at last--my long-sought love?" he exclaimed, rapturously. "Do you now perceive what your dispensations of Providence mean? The shrewdness and persistence of a single man who knows what he wants, has baffled them, and driven all the heroes of signs and wonders from the field! Do you now believe what I said just now: that we are our own Providence?"
"That will appear in due time, do not exalt yourself and do not blaspheme, God might punish your arrogance!" she said faintly, slipping gently from his embrace.
"Madeleine--no betrothal kiss--after these weary years of waiting and hoping."
"I am still Freyer's wife," she said, evasively--"not until I am parted from him."
"You are right! I will not steal my bride's first kiss from another. I thank you for honoring my future right in his." His lips touched her brow with a calm, friendly caress. Then he rose: "It is time to go, I have not a moment to lose." He glanced at the clock: "Seven! I will make my preparations at once and set out for Prankenberg to-morrow."