days
to consider what I have said to you. At the end of that time, should you
come to me, and make the same demand, I will give my consent; that is,
I will have you publicly separated from your wife, I will have Count
Kalkreuth punished, and will thus give the world the right to laugh at
the hero of Freiburg."

"Very well, sire," said the prince, thoughtfully, "I will remind you of
your promise. I beg you will now dismiss me, for you see I am a very man
and no philosopher, unworthy to be a guest at Sans-Souci."

He bowed to the king, who tenderly pressed his hand and silently left
the room.

Frederick looked after him with an expression of unutterable pity.

"Three days will be long enough to deaden his pain, and then he will be
more reasonable and form other resolutions."

CHAPTER XIII. A HUSBAND'S REVENGE.

Camilla lay upon a sofa in her boudoir, and listened with breathless
attention to the account her beau cousin gave of the adventures of
the last eight days. She listened with sparkling eyes to the witty
description he gave of his duel with Lord Elliot, and declared that she
found him extraordinarily brilliant. Camilla was indeed proud of her
handsome lover. Kindar explained minutely how he had compelled Lord
Elliot, who for a long time avoided and fled from him, to fight a duel
with him. How he forced him on his knees to acknowledge that he had done
his wife injustice, and to apologize for the insult he had offered to
Kindar, in charging him with being the lover of his pure and virtuous
wile.

"And he did this?" cried Camilla; "he knelt before you and begged your
pardon?"

"Yes, he knelt before me, and begged my pardon."

"Then he is even more pitiful than I thought him," said Camilla, "and
I am justified before the whole world in despising him. Nothing can be
more contemptible than to beg pardon rather than fight a duel, to kneel
to a man to save one's miserable life. I am a woman, but I would scorn
such cowardice. I would despise the man I loved most fondly if he were
guilty of such an act of shame."

Camilla was much excited; she did not notice how Kindar started, turned
pale, and fixed his eyes on the floor. She was so charmed with the
courage of her beau cousin that she could think of nothing else. Even
her frivolous nature had this feminine instinct--she prized personal
daring and courage in a man more than all other things; of strength of
mind she knew nothing, and therefore she could n