elf should see the prince, and give him his dismissal. She had
also requested that Bertram should be present. She wished to show him
that her heart had, at once and forever, been healed of its foolish
and unholy love, and that she could face the prince without trembling
or hesitation. This was an offering which she wished to bring to the
honor of her future husband and her own pride; and she would have
despised herself if a motion of her eyebrow or a sigh from her breast
had betrayed the sadness which, against her will, she felt in her
heart. She looked, therefore, with a cold and calm eye on the prince
as he entered, and for the first time he seemed no longer the handsome
man, the being endowed with numberless fascinations, of former days.
She read only in his flaccid features the sad history of the past. The
charm was broken which had held her eyes captive. Her vision was clear
again, and she shuddered before this wild, demoniacal beauty which she
had once adored as God's image in man. As she looked at him, she felt
as if she could hate him, because she had loved him; because she had
spent her first youth, her first love, her first happiness, on him;
because he had defrauded her of the peace and innocence of her heart;
and because she no longer had even the right of weeping for her lost
love, but was forced to turn away from it with blushes of shame.

Feodor approached with an air of happy triumph and satisfaction, and,
bowing low to her father, said, with a most exquisite smile, "I have
come to seek my bride--to request Elise's hand of her father."

With eyes beaming with pleasure he offered Elise his hand, but hers
remained calm and cold, and her voice did not tremble or falter as
she said: "I am a bride, but not yours, Prince Stratimojeff;" and
extending her hand to Bertram, she continued: "This is my husband!
To-day, for the third time, he has saved me--saved me from you!"

Prince Feodor felt annihilated, and staggered back as if struck by an
electric shock. "Elise! is this the way you reward my love?" asked he
sadly, after a pause. "Is this the troth you plighted me?"

She stepped up close to him, and said softly: "I kept my heart
faithful to my Feodor, but he ceded it to Prince Stratimojeff. Elise
is too proud to be the wife of a man who owes his title of prince to
the fact of being the favorite of an empress."

She turned and was about to leave the room, but Feodor held her back.
No reserve, no concealment