It is harsh and cruel, but it is a law that
will neither bend nor break. Do you understand me?"
The girl stared blindly at the wall. "Yes, father."
"It is all my fault," said the duke, deeply agitated, for the girl
trembled under his touch.
"I shall not ride with him any more."
"There's a good girl," patting her shoulder.
"I have been a princess such a little while."
He kissed the wheaten-colored hair. "Be a brave heart, and I shall
engage to find a king for you."
"I don't want any playthings, father," with the old light touch; and
then she looked him full in the eyes. "I promise to do nothing more to
create comment if, on the other hand, you will promise to give me two
years more of freedom."
The duke readily assented, and shortly returned to his own suite, rather
pleased that there had been no scene; not that he had expected any.
Now that she was alone, she slipped into the chair, beat a light tattoo
with her riding-whip against her teeth, and looked fixedly at the wall
again, as if to gaze beyond it, into the dim future. But she saw nothing
save that she was young and that the days in Dresden, for all their
penury, were far pleasanter than these.
Meantime the chief of police called his subaltern and placed in his
hands the peculiar descriptions.
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