k her as a fatality. He said that
Alvan was working him great mischief, doing him deadly injury in his
position, and for no just reason, inasmuch as he--a bold, bad man
striving to ruin the family on a point of pride--had declared that he
simply considered himself bound in honour to her, only a little doubtful
of her independent action at present; and a release of him, accompanied
by her plain statement of her being under no compulsion, voluntarily the
betrothed of another, would solve the difficulty. A certain old woman, it
seemed, was anxious to have him formally released.

With the usual dose for such a patient, of cajoleries and threats, the
General begged her to comply, pulling the hands he squeezed in a way to
strongly emphasize his affectionate entreaty.

She went straight to Marko, consenting that he should have Alvan's letter
unopened (she cared not to read it, she said), on his promise to give it
up to her within a stated period. There was a kind of prohibited
pleasure, sweet acid, catching discord, in the idea of this lover's
keeping the forbidden thing she could ask for when she was curious about
the other, which at present she was not; dead rather; anxious to please
her parents, and determined to be no rival of the baroness. Marko
promised it readily, adding: 'Only let the storm roll over, that we may
have more liberty, and I myself, when we two are free, will lead you to
Alvan, and leave it to you to choose between us. Your happiness, beloved,
is my sole thought. Submit for the moment.' He spoke sweetly, with his
dearest look, touching her luxurious nature with a belief that she could
love him; untroubled by another, she could love and be true to him: her
maternal inner nature yearned to the frailbodied youth.

She made a comparison in her mind of Alvan's love and Marko's, and of the
lives of the two men. There was no grisly baroness attached to the
prince's life.

She wrote the letter to Alvan, feeling in the words that said she was
plighted to Prince Marko, that she said, and clearly said, the baroness
is now relieved of a rival, and may take you! She felt it so acutely as
to feel that she said nothing else.

Severances are accomplished within the heart stroke by stroke; within the
craven's heart each new step resulting from a blow is temporarily an
absolute severance. Her letter to Alvan written, she thought not tenderly
of him but of the prince, who had always loved a young woman, and was
unhamper