"
"So she refrains from furnishing John with my two hundred talents, I
shall not quarrel with her. You have your own difficulties to adjust,
and mine, only in so far as they concern you."
His voice had lost none of its smoothness, but it had become hard and
purposeful.
"I have come to that point, Philadelphus, where my difficulties and
not yours concern me," she replied. "I had nothing to give you but my
good will. You have outraged even that. Hereafter, no tie binds us."
"No? You cast off our ties as lightly as you assumed them. With a word
you announce me wedded to you; with another you speak our divorcement.
And I, poor clod, suffer it? The first, yes; but the last, no. You
see, I have fallen in love with you."
She turned her clear eyes away from him and waited calmly till she
could escape.
"You have spent your greatest argument in persuading me to be a king.
Kings, lady, are essentially tyrants, in these bad days. Wherefore, if
I am to be one, I shall not fail to be the other. And you--ah, you!
Will you endure the oppressor that you made?"
There was enough that was different in his manner and his words for
her to believe that something worthy of attention was to follow. She
looked at him, now.
"This roof, since the alienation of John to my wife, is mine empire.
Within it, I am despot. From its lady mistress, the Greek, to the
meanest slave, I have homage and subjection.
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