Moths by Ouida — page 375: what you’re looking at

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

MOTHS. Ye | should be confined in exile till she dies of utter weariness, of utter loneliness, of utter hopelessness! Prince Zouroff is within his rights, but none thé less is he an assassin. I believe he al- leges that she is free to return; but when he couples her return with an unworthy condition that she cannot accept, she is ag much his captive as though chains were on her. If she remain there, she will not live ; and she will never consent to leave Szar: isla, since she can only leave it at the price of affected friend: ship with the Duchesse de. Sonnaz—-~” “What would you have me do?” cried his hearer, in a sudden agitation very rare with her, in which anger and sorrow strov together ; ‘‘ what is it youask? what is it you wish? Ido not understand 4 ‘*T wish to speak to Prince Zouroff.”’ ‘* Speak to Sergius ?” ‘In my name, yes; he would not hear me, or I would speak myself. Madame, your brother knows very well that his wife ig as innocent as the angels, but it suits him that all the world should suspect her.” ‘Then he is a villain !” ‘* He is under the infiuence of an unscrupulous woman; that is nearly the same thing. Madame de Sonnaz never forgave his marriage; she now avenges it. Madame, what I wish is that you should speak to your brother asI speak to you. He would not hear me; that is natural. Heis her husband, Iam nothing; he has the right to refuse to listen to her name from my mouth, But you he will hear. Tell him whatI have told you; tell him that when the world speaks of me and of her it lies; and tell him—I can think of no better way—that to remove all possibil- ity of suspicion, to put away all semblance of truth from the rumors of society, I myself will die to the world... Why not? 1. am tired. She will never be mine. Fame is nothing to me, The very music I have adored all my life seems like the mere shaking of dried peas in an empty bladder. I cannot forget one woman's face, a woman who will never be mine. I will leave art and the world of men; I will go back to the mountains where I was born, and live the life my fathers led: in a season Europe will have forgotten that it had ever an idol called Correze. Nay, if that fail to content him, if he doubt that I shall keep my word, I will do more; I will enter one of those retreats where a men are alone with their memories and with God. There is the Chartreuse that has sheltered greater men than I, and nobler livesthan mine. It is allalone amidst the hills; I should be in my native air; I could go there. You stare; do you doubt? I give my word that I will die to the world; I can think of no other way to save her name from mine. If that content him, I will do it, if he will bring her back into the honor of the world and never force her to see Jeanne de Sonnaz. Does it seem so much for you to do? Itis nothing; I would die in my body for her, or to do her any good. Thus I shall die, only in name.” He ceased to speak, and his hearer was silent. There was no - gound but the wind blowing through the scorched ruins of the cS ‘comicboo a 0)