he sat lifelessly; then night came; she could not sleep, but
she was able to sob.

Now it was next day; she was lying down exhausted, but really she had
shed her last tear, fought her last fight, recovered her indifference:
no sorrows that were still in store for her could ever hurt her now!

Yet the fond embrace of Othomar's mother softened her; and she again
found her tears.

They exchanged barely a few words and yet they felt a mutual sympathy
passing between them. And through the midst of her sorrow Valerie could
see her duty, which would at the same time be her strength: no bitter
indifference, but an acquiescence in what her life might be. Oh, she had
imagined it differently in her dreams as a young girl: she had pictured
it to herself as more agreeable and smiling and as finding its
expression more naturally, more spontaneously and without so much
calculation! But she had awakened from her dreams; and where else should
she seek her strength but in her duty?... And she conquered herself,
whatever might be destroyed in her soul, by an unsuspected vitality--her
real nature--even more than by her thoughts. She dried her eyes,
mentioned that it was near the time when a deputation of young Liparian
ladies was to come and offer her a wedding-present; and the empress left
her alone, that she might dress.

She appeared presently, in a white costume embroidered with dull gold,
in the drawing-room where her parents sat with the empress and with
Helene of Thesbia and the Austrian ladies-in-waiting. Shortly after,
Othomar came too, with his sisters and the Archduke of Carinthia. And,
when the deputation of young ladies of rank was announced and appeared,
with Eleonore of Yemena in its midst, Valerie listened with her usual
smile to the address recited by the little marchioness, with a gracious
gesture accepted from the hands of two other girls the great case which
they caused to fly open, showing, upon light velvet, a triple necklace
of great pearls. And she was able to find a few pretty phrases of
thanks: she uttered them in a clear voice; and no one who heard her
would have suspected that she had passed a sleepless night, bathed in
tears, with before her eyes the lifeless body of a young man with
shattered temples.

The young ladies of the deputation were permitted to see the
wedding-presents, which were displayed in a large room; Princess Thera
and the ladies-in-waiting accompanied them. There, in that room, it was
l