“How have you mistaken, how have you misunderstood me, Nina!” said the Princess, sorrowfully. “Not so,” cried she, eagerly. “You only saw one advantage in the plan you counselled. _I_ perceived that it contained a double benefit.” “But remember, dearest Nina, revenge is the most costly of all pleasures, if one pays for it with all that they possess--their tranquillity. I myself might have indulged such thoughts as yours; there were many points alike in our fortunes: but to have followed such a course would be like the wisdom of one who inoculates himself with a deadly malady that he may impart the poison to another.” “Must I again tell you that in all I have done I cared less how it might serve _me_ than how it might wound _him?_ I know you cannot understand this sentiment; I do not ask of you to sympathize with it. _Your_ talents enabled you to shape out a high and ambitious career for yourself. You loved the great intrigues of state, and were well fitted to conduct or control them. None such gifts were mine. I was and I am still a mere creature of society. I never soared, even in fancy, beyond the triumphs which the world of fashion decrees. A cruel destiny excluded me from the pleasures of a life that would have amply satisfied me, and there is nothing left but to avenge myself on the cause.” “My dearest Nina, with all your self-stimulation you cannot make yourself the vindictive creature you would appear,” said the Princess, smiling. “How little do you know my Italian blood!” said the other, passionately. “That boy--he was not much more than boy--that Greppi was, as I told you, the very image of Glencore. The same dark skin, the same heavy brow, the same cold, stern look, which even a smile did not enliven; even to the impassive air with which he listened to a provocation,--all were alike. Well, the resemblance has cost him dearly. I consented at last to Wahnsdorf's continual entreaty to exclude him from the Villa, and charged the Count with the commission. I am not sure that he expended an excess of delicacy on the task; I half fear me that he did the act more rudely than was needed. At all events, a quarrel was the result, and a challenge to a duel. I only knew of this when all was over; believe me, I should never have permitted it. However, the result was as safe in the hands of Fate. The youth fled from Massa; and though Wahnsdorf followed him, they never met.” “There was no duel, you say?” cried the Princess, eagerly.