Her Royal Lover: A Novel — page 196: what you’re looking at

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

188 HER ROYAL LOVER. was at my birth; my head crammed with supersti tions. No, sire! I will not demand a divorce. I do not wish to become your wife!” “Why?” demanded the king. “Why—because I would excite too much indigna- tion !” “No, it is because you do not love me!” Najeska Ivanowna was silent. “Oh, no! you do not love me!” pursued the king. “Otherwise, could you reason thus with so much serenity, with so much tranquillity ?” Najeska Ivanowna was trembling like a leaf agi- tated by the wind. And this was what the king called being tranquil! She remained, however, ob- stinately silent. “T still insist, Najeska Ivanowna! I will say more; I exact the truth from your lips. Why, on that hallowed morning, when I was alone with you in the pavilion, did you tremble at my touch? Why, but just now, at my entrance, this emotion that I be- lheved I observed, if you do not love me? Najeska Ivanowna, I pray you, answer me; see you not that your silence makes me mad?” The king was so handsome, at this moment, his manly form was breathing such a passion of expec- tation and of love, that Najeska Ivanowna felt a voluptuous thrill run through her veins; strange emotions, such as those that Charles Ferdinand, and he alone, in her life, had already several times ex- cited in her, filling her heart with a sweet and ten- der admiration. Yes, she loved him!—loved him with all the strength of her young soul; neverthe- less, she still hesitated. — If only, in that moment, she had listened to her hesitations! If, instead of allowing herself to be Gomicbooks.com