n you could
be here all your life and you and yours would be well provided for.
Take my word for it, I know what the quality are. If you leave here
without having secured a good situation, not a cat will remember you.
But if you remain here, you'll be well taken care of to the end of your
days, and the older the prince gets, the more he'll think of you; and
when he becomes king, he'll provide for you, your family, your child
and even your grandchildren. Is that wicked advice?"

"No; on the contrary, it's very good and I'll remember it. That,
indeed, would be bread and lots of butter."

"Oh, I've never seen or heard so sensible a woman as you are. You
deserve a better lot; but that can't be helped, and if you remain here,
I'll often have the pleasure of seeing you and speaking a word with
you, for I hope we'll be good friends; shall we not?"

"Yes, indeed, and my Hansei will also be a good friend to you. There's
not a false drop of blood in his body and he's clever, too, only he's
not much of a talker; and he loves me just as much as gold; he's true
and kindhearted, and I won't let any one say a word against him."

"I haven't said anything against him," replied Baum, and Walpurga was
obliged to admit that this was the case; nevertheless, she could not
help feeling that any offer of love to another man's wife is an insult
to her husband, for it implies as plainly as words can express it: "He
is not the right man, for he has such and such faults; I alone am
worthy of you."

Sighing deeply, Baum answered:

"Oh, if one could only double his life."

"I should think one life was enough for any man."

"Certainly, if one hasn't wasted it. One can only live once, you know."

"Yes, in this world; but in the next it begins anew."

"I mean in this world, too. But it's very hard, let me tell you, if
one's whole life has been wasted through a stupid blunder. Must one
bear with it and make no attempt to change it? We've both of us
blundered."

"Who?"

"While I was a soldier, I became acquainted with the valet of the late
king. He was very fond of me and took great pleasure in helping me
forward; but he well knew what he was about. I thought it a wonderful
piece of luck, when I found I was to marry his daughter. It was only
too late, when I discovered that she was sickly and irritable and
without a healthy drop of blood in her body. And is my whole life to be
wasted, because of this blunder? And is no love left for me in