"Not Clementina?"
"No."
Maria uttered a little sigh. Her pain gave her a sort of ownership of
the man who caused it. "Nor can she love as deep," she continued
quietly. "A Sobieski from the snows! Love was born here in Italy. She
robs me of you. I hate her." Then she raised her face eagerly. "Charles
Wogan may fail."
"You do not know him."
"The cleverest have made mistakes and died for them."
"Wogan makes mistakes like another, but somehow gets the better of them
in the end. There was a word he said to me when he begged for my
permission. I told him his plan was a mere dream. He answered he would
dream it true; he will."
"You should have waked him. You were the master, he the servant. You
were the King."
"And when can the King do what he wills instead of what he must? Maria,
if you and I had met before I sent Charles Wogan to search out a wife
for me--"
Maria Vittoria knelt up. She drew herself away.
"He chose her as your wife?"
"If only I had had time to summon him back!"
"He chose her--Charles Wogan. How I hate him!"
"I sent him to make the choice."
"And he might have gone no step beyond Bologna. There was I not a mile
distant ready to his hand! But I was too mean, too despicable--"
"Maria, hush!" And the troubled voice in which he spoke rang with so
much pain that she was at once contrite with remorse.
"My lord, I hurt you, so you see how I am proven mean. Give me your hand
and laugh to me; laugh with your heart and eyes and lips. I am jealous
of your pain. I am a woman. I would have it all, gather it all into my
bosom, and cherish each sharp stab like a flower my lover gives to me. I
am glad of them. They are flowers that will not wither. Add a kiss,
sweetheart, the sharpest stab, and so the chief flower, the very rose of
flowers. There, that is well," and she rose from her knees and turned
away. So she stood for a little, and when she turned again she wore upon
her face the smile which she had bidden rise in his.
"Would we were free!" cried the Chevalier.
"But since we are not, let us show brave faces to the world and hide our
hearts. I do wish you all happiness. But you will go to Spain. There's
a friend's hand in warrant of the wish."