Clara (in alarm). No! Princess. You will be received with hisses, hooting--perhaps with stone throwing. You didn't expect anything like that, did you? Clara. No. Princess. What shall you do? Clara (after a moment, quietly). I shall go with the King. Princess. A nice road you are dragging him along, truly! And I assure you that the farther you go along it, the worse it will become. You cannot possibly have prepared yourself for all that you will have to go through. Clara. I think I have. Princess (in surprise). What do you mean? How? Clara (bending her head). I have prayed to God. Princess. Pshaw! I mean that you cannot have considered the misery into which you are dragging the King--and the disgrace and trouble you are bringing upon all his people. (CLARA is silent.) You are young still; your heart cannot be altogether hardened yet, whatever your past may have been. Clara (proudly). I have no reason to be ashamed of my past. Princess. Indeed? What sort of a past has it been, then? Clara. One full of suffering, princess--and of work. (A pause.) Princess. Do you know what the King's past has been? Clara (drooping her head). Ah, yes. Princess. Yours will be tarred with the same brush--no matter what it really has been. Clara. I know that. He has told me so. Princess. Really!--After all, is it a sacrifice you are making for his sake? Do you love the King? Clara (faintly). Yes. Princess. Then listen to me. If you loved the King, you would have made a _real_ sacrifice for him. We are women, you and I; we can understand these things without many words. But such a sacrifice does not consist in consenting to be his queen. Clara. It is not I that wished it. Princess. You have allowed yourself to be persuaded?--Well, you are either deceiving yourself, my girl, or you are deceiving him. Perhaps you began with the one and are ending with the other. Anyway, it is time you had your eyes opened as to which of you it is that is making the sacrifice. Do you not know that, on your account, he is already the target for general contempt? (CLARA bursts into tears.) If that makes you repent, show it--show it by your deeds! Clara. I repent of nothing. Princess (in astonishment). What state of mind are you in, then? Clara. I have suffered terribly. But I pray God for strength to bear it. Princess. Don't talk nonsense! The whole thing is a horrible confusion of ideas--half remorse and half cant--the one so mixed up with the other in your mind that you cannot disentangle them. But, believe me, others feel very sure that sacred things and--and what I won't call bluntly by its name, go very ill together! So don't waste those airs on me; they only irritate me! Clara. Princess, don't be cruel to me. I _am_ suffering, all the same. Princess. Why on earth do you want to go any farther with the affair? If you aren't clear about it, take advice! Your father is opposed to it, isn't he? Clara. Yes. (Throws herself into a chair.)