Then he answered.
"Gloria is--just Gloria! There is no woman like her,--there never will
be any woman like her! She said nothing at all while I raged and
swore;--she stood before me white and silent,--grand and calm, like
some great angel. Then when I cursed _him,_--she raised her hand,
and like a queen she said: 'I forbid you to utter one word against
him!' I stood before her mute and foolish. 'I forbid you!' She,--the
child I reared and nurtured--menaced me with her 'command' as though I
were her slave and servant! You see I have lost her!--she is not mine
any more--she is _his_--to be treated as he wills, and made the
toy of his pleasure! She does not know the world, but I know it! I know
the misery that is in store for her! But there is yet time--and I will
live to avenge her wrong!"
"Possibly there will be no wrong to avenge," said Von Glauben
composedly; "But if there is, I have no doubt you would kill another
king!" Ronsard turned pale and shuddered. "It is stupid work, killing
kings," went on the Professor; "It never does any good; and often
increases the evil it was intended to cure. Your studies in philosophy
must have taught you that much at least! As for your losing Gloria,--
you lost her in a sense when you gave her to her husband. It is no use
complaining now, because you find he is not the man you took him for.
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