I was a trifler; and you despised me, I dare not say unjustly. But
to do justice on both sides, you must bear in mind how I have acted.
When I found it amused you to play the part of Princess on this
little stage, did I not immediately resign to you my box of toys,
this Grunewald? And when I found I was distasteful as a husband,
could any husband have been less intrusive? You will tell me that I
have no feelings, no preference, and thus no credit; that I go
before the wind; that all this was in my character. And indeed, one
thing is true, that it is easy, too easy, to leave things undone.
But Seraphina, I begin to learn it is not always wise. If I were
too old and too uncongenial for your husband, I should still have
remembered that I was the Prince of that country to which you came,
a visitor and a child. In that relation also there were duties, and
these duties I have not performed.'

To claim the advantage of superior age is to give sure offence.
'Duty!' laughed Seraphina, 'and on your lips, Frederic! You make me
laugh. What fancy is this? Go, flirt with the maids and be a
prince in Dresden china, as you look. Enjoy yourself, MON ENFANT,
and leave duty and the state to us.'

The plural grated on the Prince. 'I have enjoyed myself too much,'
he said, 'since enjoyment is the word. And yet there were much to
say upon the other side. You must suppose me desperately fond of
hunting. But indeed there were days when I found a great deal of
interest in what it was courtesy to call my government. And I have
always had some claim to taste; I could tell live happiness from
dull routine; and between hunting, and the throne of Austria, and
your society, my choice had never wavered, had the choice been mine.
You were a girl, a bud, when you were given me - '