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that she might let you quietly take her to the man into whose heart you command her to sneak; and for it you would have him favor her, make of her his unacknowledged wife, disliked and persecuted by his family, scorned by queens who would never recognize her as their peer, ridiculed by the nobility from whose circle she had haughtily elevated herself, unrecognized by nations which would not know what to call her, for she would give up the right to her family name and gain no other from the position of her husband. She would be something that hangs between heaven and earth, claimed by neither, repelled by both; something that can spread its roots nowhere, belongs to no one, something that is neither truth nor lie. Oh, how could I have ever dreamed that you were preparing such a lot for me? Hypocrisy, selfishness, malice—such are then the virtues of the nobility; such qualities would please you; through them I should bestow new and undying glory upon our family! Oh, indeed, they are worthy of