Every sound every step, filled her with terror, for
it might announce the arrival of her husband, whom she must welcome
with hypocritical love and joy. Could she but show him her scorn,
her hatred, her indifference! But the laws of etiquette held her in
their stern bonds and would not release her. She was a princess, and
could not escape from the painful restraints of her position. She
had not the courage to do so. At times in her day-dreams, she longed
to leave all the cold, deceitful glare, by which she was surrounded-
-to go to some far distant valley, and there to live alone and
unknown, by the side of her lover, where no etiquette would disturb
their happiness--where she would be free as the birds of the air, as
careless as the flowers of the field. But these wild dreams vanished
when the cold, cruel reality appeared to her. By the side of the
once loving woman stood again the princess, who could not surrender
the splendor and magnificence by which she was surrounded. She had
not the courage nor the wish to descend from her height to the daily
life of common mortals. There was dissension in her soul between the
high-born princess and the loving, passionate woman.
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