Weapons were being forged against her, she perceived; but she could do nothing.

Had she offered a denial, her glowing cheeks would have testified against her.

She held her peace, accordingly, and preserved such outward composure as she was able.
"_N'en parlons plus!_" concluded the prince, fully aware of his triumph.
"No one shall boast of outdoing Prince Cagliari in magnanimity,--not even his wife.

Where you have knelt and sued for mercy, I too will kneel; what you have written in your petition I will subscribe to, and add still further: 'We are not husband and wife, we are father and daughter.' And you shall learn that this is no empty phrase.

I do not seek to sever the bond between us; I exchange it for another." All this was uttered in so friendly a tone, and with such seeming warmth of feeling, that no one unacquainted with the speaker, and not knowing him for the most consummate of hypocrites and the cleverest of actors, could have listened to him without being moved almost to tears.