"that duplicate of thine, if it was not thy
very self, was possessed with a dumb spirit, as thou with a talking one.
I am still in the mind that you are the same; and that Satan, always so
powerful with your sex, had art enough on our former meeting, to make
thee hold thy tongue."

"Believe what you will of it, my lord," replied Zarah, "it cannot change
the truth.--And now, my lord, I bid you farewell. Have you any commands
to Mauritania?"

"Tarry a little, my Princess," said the Duke; "and remember, that you
have voluntarily entered yourself as pledge for another; and are justly
subjected to any penalty which it is my pleasure to exact. None must
brave Buckingham with impunity."

"I am in no hurry to depart, if your Grace hath any commands for me."

"What! are you neither afraid of my resentment, nor of my love, fair
Zarah?" said the Duke.

"Of neither, by this glove," answered the lady. "Your resentment must be
a pretty passion indeed, if it could stoop to such a helpless object as
I am; and for your love--good lack! good lack!"

"And why good lack with such a tone of contempt, lady?" said the Duke,
piqued in spite of himself. "Think you Buckingham cannot love, or has
never been beloved in return?"

"He may have thought himself beloved," said the maiden; "but by what
slight creatures!--things whose heads could be rendered giddy by a
playhouse rant--whose brains were only filled with red-heeled shoes and
satin buskins--and who run altogether mad on the argument of a George
and a star."

"And are there no such frail fair ones in your climate, most scornful
Princess?" said the Duke.

"There are," said the lady; "but men rate them as parrots and
monkeys--things without either sense or soul, head or heart. The
nearness we bear to the sun has purified, while it strengthens, our
passions. The icicles of your frozen climate shall as soon hammer hot
bars into ploughshares, as shall the foppery and folly of your pretended
gallantry make an instant's impression on a breast like mine."

"You speak like one who knows what passion is," said the Duke. "Sit
down, fair lady, and grieve not that I detain you. Who can consent
to part with a tongue of so much melody, or an eye of such expressive
eloquence!--You have known then what it is to love?"

"I know--no matter if by experience, or through the report of
others--but I do know, that to love, as I would love, would be to yield
not an iota to avarice, not one inch to van