Then with a smile which partly shielded a sob, her arms went around my
neck and her face lay close to mine. Heaven knows which was the
greater, the joy or the pain.
"Gretchen, think!" I cried, distractedly. "What is a Prince or a King
to you and me, who love?"
"There is honor," gently. She caressed my cheek with her fingers.
"Honor!" I cried, vehemently. "Is it honorable to marry the man you do
not love and break the heart of the one you do?"
She did not answer, but her arms fell from my neck, and she approached
the window. The passing river was reflected in her eyes. Her reverie
was a short one.
"Listen, Herr; I will tell you why it is honorable. The Prince and the
King? I fear the one as little as I do the other. It is not the
Prince, it is not the King, it is not the principality. Herr, I have
come near to being a very wicked woman, who was about to break the most
sacred promise a sovereign can make. Before I came here a delegation
of my people approached me. On bended knees they asked me not to
voluntarily return the principality to the King, who was likely to give
them a ruler rapacious or cruel or indifferent. And while they
understood what a sacrifice it meant to me, they asked me to bend my
will to the King's and wed the Prince, vowing that I alone should be
recognized as their sovereign ruler. Since my coronation they said
that they had known the first happiness in years. Herr, it was so
pathetic! I love my people, who, after all, are not adopted since I
was born here. So I gave my promise, and, heaven forgive me, I was
about to break it! There are some things, Herr, which the publican
does not understand. One of these is the duty a sovereign owes to the
people. The woman in me wishes to follow your fortunes, though they
carry her to the ends of the world; but the sovereign sees but one
path--honor and duty. What is one human heart to a hundred thousand?
A grain of sand. Herr, let mine be broken; I shall not murmur. Alas!
to be a princess, a puppet in this tinsel show of kings and queens! It
is my word and the King's will which have made my happiness an
impossibility. Though I love you, I wish never to see you again. I
shall be wife but in name, yet I may not have a lover. I am not a
woman of the court. I am proud of my honor, though the man who is to
be my husband doubts that."