“What you say might be true,” she answered, “were your opportunities indeed restricted to the regency.  But the little prince’s life is known to hang on a thread:  at any moment you may be Duke.  And you will not deny that as Duke of Pianura you can serve your people better than as an obscure pamphleteer in Paris.”

Odo made an impatient gesture.  “Are you so sure?” he said.  “Even as Duke I must be the puppet of powers greater than myself—­of Austria, of Rome, nay, of the wealthy nobles who will always league themselves with their sovereign’s enemies rather than suffer a hand upon their privileges.  And even if I were fortunate enough to outwit my masters and rule indeed, over what a toy kingdom should I reign!  How small a number would be benefited!  How little the cause would be helped by my example!  As an obscure pamphleteer I might reach the hearts of thousands and speak to great kings on their thrones; as Duke of Pianura, fighting single-handed to reform the laws of my little state, I should rank at best with the other petty sovereigns who are amusing themselves all over Italy with agricultural experiments and improved methods of cheese-making.”

Again the brightness shone in Fulvia’s face.  “How you love me!” she said as he paused; and went on, restraining him with a gesture of the gentlest dignity:  “For it is love that speaks thus in you and not reason; and you know as I do that the duty to which a man is born comes before any of his own choosing.  You are called to serve liberty on a throne, I in some obscure corner of the private life.  We can no more exchange our duties than our stations; but if our lives divide, our purpose remains one, and as pious persons recall each other in the mystery of the Sacrament, so we shall meet in spirit in the new religion we profess.”

Her voice gained strength and measure as she spoke, and Odo felt that all that passion could urge must spend itself in vain against such high security of spirit.

“Go, cavaliere,” she continued, “I implore you to lose no time in reaching Pianura.  Occasion is short-lived, and an hour’s lingering may cost you the regency, and with it the chance of gaining a hold on your people.  I will not expatiate, as some might, on the power and dignities that await you.  You are no adventurer plotting to steal a throne, but a soldier pledged to his post.”  She moved close to him and suddenly caught his hand and raised it to her lips.  “Your excellency,” said she, “has deigned to look for a moment on a poor girl that crossed your path.  Now your eyes must be on your people, who will yet have cause to love and bless you as she does.”

She shone on him with a weeping brightness that dissolved his very soul.

“Ah,” he cried, “you have indeed learned your lesson well!  I admire with what stoic calmness you pronounce my doom, with what readiness you dispose of my future!”

“It is not mine to dispose of,” she caught him up, “nor yours; but belongs, as much as any slave’s to his master, to the people you are called to rule.  Think for how many generations their unheeded sufferings, their unrewarded toil, have paid for the pomp and pleasure of your house!  That is the debt you are called on to acquit, the wrong you are pledged to set right.”