“My Necessary Explanation.

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Après moi le déluge.

“Yesterday morning the prince came to see me. Among other things he asked me to come down to his villa. I knew he would come and persuade me to this step, and that he would adduce the argument that it would be easier for me to die ‘among people and green trees,’⁠—as he expressed it. But today he did not say ‘die,’ he said ‘live.’ It is pretty much the same to me, in my position,

which