Her Royal Lover: A Novel — page 194: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

186 HER ROYAL LOVER. can tell what he will dare some fine day! Do not forget the death of Kassan !” “Sire!—sire! you become unjust, and I will dare to tell you so; almost insane!” “That is all the same, allow me to continue. He is of an unequaled violence, and he will never change now. One easily bends a reed in the direction wherein we desire, but what impulsion, other than that which it has taken, can we give to an old enarled trunk?” The king was speaking the truth; already in her own mind, Najeska Ivanowna had often thought how many moments of her past life had been horri- ble; these painful reminiscences brought her back to the day in which she had seen her husband for the last time. It was with a shiver of terror that she recalled his contorted face at the frightful moment when, whipping her as one chastises a dog, he had sO ignominiously outraged her, her, daughter and wife of aprince! This offense would be always an indelible stain for her, which nothing could efface. “Listen to me,” continued the king, very gently. “You must demand a divorce.” “But my children?” “Your children? They will be given to you, for it is he who has been to blame. It is he, who in the presence of a witness, your groom, and seen from a distance by two flower-girls, who have testified against him, has inflicted an outrage on you, more than sufficient for you to gain your cause.” “But what is the situation of a divorced woman, sire?” “When this divorced woman becomes the wife of a king, do you believe that any one Would dare to cast a stone at her?” Gomicbooks. co m