Her Royal Lover: A Novel — page 297: what you’re looking at

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

HER ROYAL LOVER. . 289 becility was making him culpable; he did not under- estimate the false position in which he found him- self, as much in respect to his own people as well as in the eyes of every serious, upright, and well-dis- posed person. His conscience, harassed by re- morse, left him neither relaxation nor repose. Since the day of his marriage he could no longer sleep; haunted unceasingly by the thought of the unjust sufferings that his cowardice, said some, that the sacrifice of his happiness to his children’s future, said others, had inflicted on an unhappy woman, anxious and uneasy, he was nothing but the shadow of himself. Until then, the rumor of his secret mar- riage had remained in a latent state; it might be hoped that time, that great master, would finish by smothering it; but now since Najeska Ivanowna had, very adroitly moreover, placed her interest in the hands of the chief of the opposition, they were no longer able to count upon discretion and silence. An hour had scarcely elapsed after the first notifi- cation, before the king had a second. This one came from the office of the official jour- nal, and advised the king that Monsieur Klug had exacted that the announcement of the sovereign’s marriage should be inserted in the columns of the public journal. “Tt is the right of my client,” he had said, “and I will maintain it against all opposition.” This time it was the commencement of a struggle whose fair side was not for the monarch. At first the indignation of the empress knew no bounds. “You are going to formally defend such a thing!” cried the mother-in-law.” Eomicboo “S