was quite true)
to a silly supplicating girl; she would not have allowed an interval to
yawn after the first wild wooing of her. Prince Marko loved. Yes, that
was love! It failed in no sign of the passion. She set herself to study
it in Marko, and was moved by many sentiments, numbering among them pity,
thankfulness, and the shiver of a feeling between admiration and pathetic
esteem, like that the musician has for a precious instrument giving sweet
sound when shattered. He served her faithfully, in spite of his distaste
for some of his lady's commissions. She had to get her news of Alvan
through Marko. He brought her particulars of the old trial of Alvan, and
Alvan's oration in defence of himself for a lawless act of devotion to
the baroness; nothing less than the successfully scheming to wrest by
force from that lady's enemy a document precious to her lawful interests.
It was one of those cases which have a really high gallant side as well
as a bad; an excellent case for rhetoric. Marko supplied the world's
opinion of the affair, bravely owning it to be not unfavourable. Her
worthy relatives, the Frau v. Crestow and husband, had very properly
furnished a report to the family of the memorable evening; and the hubbub
over it, with the epithets applied to Alvan, intimated how he would have
been received on a visit to demand her in marriage. There was no chance
of her being allowed to enter houses where this 'rageing demagogue and
popular buffoon' was a guest; his name was banished from her hearing, so
she was compelled to have recourse to Marko. Unable to take such services
without rewarding him, she fondled: it pained her to see him suffer.
Those who toss crumbs to their domestic favourites will now and then be
moved to toss meat, which is not so good for them, but the dumb
mendicant's delight in it is winning, and a little cannot hurt. Besides,
if any one had a claim on her it was the prince; and as he was always
adoring, never importunate, he restored her to the pedestal she had been
really rudely shaken from by that other who had caught her up suddenly
into the air, and dropped her! A hand abandoned to her slave rewarded him
immeasurably. A heightening of the reward almost took his life. In the
peacefulness of dealing with a submissive love that made her queenly, the
royal, which plucked her from throne to footstool, seemed predatory and
insolent. Thus, after that scene of 'first love,' in which she had been
actress, s