I must not encourage hopes that would end only in disappointment.

Let this matter not be referred to again between us." "But how if it were imposed by the prince as the indispensable condition of a peaceful settlement of your relations with him ?" "I cannot believe that such is the case," replied Blanka, calmly.

"But however that may be, I cannot bind myself by any promise to you, knowing as I do that the question of matrimony between us is one that the canons of the Romish Church forbid us to consider." "Ah, you have been studying ecclesiastical law, I see,--an error like that of the sick man that reads medical works.

You undoubtedly have in mind the tenth paragraph, which forbids a son to marry his father's divorced wife; but you should have read farther, where it is declared that a marriage pronounced null and void by the clemency of the Pope is as if it never had been, and thus offers no hindrance to a subsequent union." "No," rejoined the princess, "I did not refer to the tenth paragraph.
The paragraph which renders our union impossible is the fourteenth." The shot was fired, the mark was hit.

Like a tiger mortally wounded the man sprang up and stood leaning on the back of his chair, glaring at his assailant with a fury that made her draw back in alarm.