You meant
them then, my princess, and you mean them still! Say that it is
true."
"I meant them, John Carter," she whispered. "I cannot repeat them
now for I have given myself to another. Ah, if you had only known
our ways, my friend," she continued, half to herself, "the promise
would have been yours long months ago, and you could have claimed
me before all others. It might have meant the fall of Helium, but
I would have given my empire for my Tharkian chief."
Then aloud she said: "Do you remember the night when you offended
me? You called me your princess without having asked my hand of me,
and then you boasted that you had fought for me. You did not know,
and I should not have been offended; I see that now. But there was
no one to tell you what I could not, that upon Barsoom there are two
kinds of women in the cities of the red men. The one they fight for
that they may ask them in marriage; the other kind they fight for
also, but never ask their hands. When a man has won a woman he may
address her as his princess, or in any of the several terms which
signify possession. You had fought for me, but had never asked me
in marriage, and so when you called me your princess, you see," she
faltered, "I was hurt, but even then, John Carter, I did not repulse
you, as I should have done, until you made it doubly worse by
taunting me with having won me through combat.
Pages:
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249