down beside me here," she returned, patting the farther corner of
the bench. "I will follow you in a moment. O, I am so tired--feel how my
heart leaps! Where is your thief?"

"At his post," replied Otto. "Shall I introduce him? He seems an
excellent companion."

"No," she said, "do not hurry me yet. I must speak to you. Not but I
adore your thief; I adore anyone who has the spirit to do wrong. I never
cared for virtue till I fell in love with my Prince." She laughed
musically. "And even so, it is not for your virtues," she added.

Otto was embarrassed. "And now," he asked, "if you are anyway rested?"

"Presently, presently. Let me breathe," she said, panting a little
harder than before.

"And what has so wearied you?" he asked. "This bag? And why, in the name
of eccentricity, a bag? For an empty one, you might have relied on my
own foresight; and this one is very far from being empty. My dear Count,
with what trash have you come laden? But the shortest method is to see
for myself." And he put down his hand.

She stopped him at once. "Otto," she said, "no--not that way. I will
tell, I will make a clean breast. It is done already. I have robbed the
treasury single-handed. There are three thousand two hundred crowns. O,
I trust it is enough!"

Her embarrassment was so obvious that the Prince was struck into a muse,
gazing in her face, with his hand still outstretched and she still
holding him by the wrist. "You!" he said at last. "How?" And then
drawing himself up, "O, madam," he cried, "I understand. You must indeed
think meanly of the Prince."

"Well then, it was a lie!" she cried. "The money is mine, honestly my
own--now yours. This was an unworthy act that you proposed. But I love
your honour, and I swore to myself that I should save it in your teeth.
I beg of you to let me save it"--with a sudden lovely change of tone.
"Otto, I beseech you let me save it. Take this dross from your poor
friend who loves you!"

"Madam, madam," babbled Otto, in the extreme of misery, "I cannot--I
must go."

And he half rose; but she was on the ground before him in an instant,
clasping his knees. "No," she gasped, "you shall not go. Do you despise
me so entirely? It is dross; I hate it; I should squander it at play and
be no richer; it is an investment; it is to save me from ruin. Otto,"
she cried, as he again feebly tried to put her from him, "if you leave
me alone in this disgrace I will die here!" He groaned aloud. "O," sh