Count Bunker Part 16

"Have you any reason, Alicia, to suspect an attachment--an affair of any kind?"

"Mamma!"

"Do not jump in that excitable manner. Think quietly. He has evidently returned to Germany for some purpose which he wishes to conceal from us: the natural supposition is that a woman is at the bottom of it."

"Rudolph is incapable----"

"No man is incapable who is in the full possession of his faculties. I know them perfectly."

"But, mamma, I cannot bear to think of such a thing!"

"That is a merely middle-cla.s.s prejudice. I can't imagine where you have picked it up."

In point of fact, during Alicia's girlhood Lady Grillyer had always been at the greatest pains to preserve her daughter's innocent simplicity, as being preeminently a more marketable commodity than precocious worldliness. But if reminded of this she would probably have retorted that consistency was middle-cla.s.s also.

"I have no reason to suspect anything of the sort," the Baroness declared emphatically.

Her mother indulged her with a pitying smile and inquired--

"What other explanation can you offer? Among his men friends is there anyone likely to lead him into mischief?"

"None--at least----"

"Ah!"

"He promised me he would avoid Mr. Bunker--I mean Mr. Essington."

The Countess started. She had vivid and exceedingly distasteful recollections of Mr. Bunker.

"That man! Are they still acquainted?"

"Acquainted--oh yes; but I give Rudolph credit for more sense and more truthfulness than to renew their friendship."

The Countess pondered with a very grave expression upon her face, while Alicia gently wiped her eyes and ardently wished that her honest Rudolph was here to defend his character and refute these baseless insinuations.

At length her mother said with a brisker air--

"Ah! I know exactly what we must do. I shall make a point of seeing Sir Justin Wallingford tomorrow."

"Sir Justin Wallingford!"

"If anybody can obtain private information for us he can. We shall soon learn whether the Baron has been sent to Russia."

Alicia uttered a cry of protest. Sir Justin, ex-diplomatist, author of a heavy volume of Victorian reminiscences, and confidant of many public personages, was one of her mother's oldest friends; but to her he was only one degree less formidable than the Countess, and quite the last person she would have chosen for consultation upon this, or indeed upon any other subject.

"I am not going to intrust my husband's secrets to him!" she exclaimed.

"I am," replied the Countess.

"But I won't allow it! Rudolph would be----"

"Rudolph has only himself to blame. My dear Alicia, you can trust Sir Justin implicitly. When my child's happiness is at stake I would consult no one who was not discretion itself. I am very glad I thought of him."

The Baroness burst into tears.

"My child, my child!" said her mother compa.s.sionately. "The world is no Garden of Eden, however much we may all try to make it so."

"You--you don't se--seem to be trying now, mamma."

"May Heaven forgive you, my darling," p.r.o.nounced the Countess piously.

CHAPTER XIV

"Sir Justin," said the Countess firmly, "please tell my daughter exactly what you have discovered."

Sir Justin Wallingford sat in the drawing-room at Belgrave Square with one of these ladies on either side of him. He was a tall, gaunt man with a grizzled black beard, a long nose, and such a formidably solemn expression that ambitious parents were in the habit of wishing that their offspring might some day be as wise as Sir Justin Wallingford looked. His fund of information was prodigious, while his reasoning powers were so remarkable that he had never been known to commit the slightest action without furnishing a full and adequate explanation of his conduct. Thus the discrimination shown by the Countess in choosing him to restore a lady's peace of mind will at once be apparent.

"The results of my inquiries," he p.r.o.nounced, "have been on the whole of a negative nature. If this mission on which the Baron von Blitzenberg professes to be employed is in fact of an unusually delicate nature, it is just conceivable that the answer I received from Prince Gommell-Kinchen, when I sounded him at the Khalifa's luncheon, may have been intended merely to throw dust in my eyes. At the same time, his highness appeared to speak with the candor of a man who has partaken, not excessively, you understand, but I may say freely, of the pleasures of the table."

He looked steadily first at one lady and then at the other, to let this point sink in.

"And what did the Prince say?" asked the Baroness, who, in spite of her supreme confidence in her husband, showed a certain eager nervousness inseparable from a judicial inquiry.

"He told me--I merely give you his word, and not my own opinion; you perfectly understand that, Baroness?"

"Oh yes," she answered hurriedly.

"He informed me that, in fact, the Baron had been obliged to ask for a fortnight's leave of absence to attend to some very pressing and private business in connection with his Silesian estates."

"I think, Alicia, we may take that as final," said her mother decisively.

"Indeed _I_ shan't!" cried Alicia warmly. "That was just an excuse, of course. Rudolph's business is so very delicate that--that--well, that you could only expect Prince Gommell-Kinchen to say something of that sort."

"What do you say to that, Sir Justin?" demanded the Countess.

With the air of a man doing what was only his duty, he replied--

"I say that I think it is improbable. In fact, since you demand to know the truth, I may inform you that the Prince added that leave of absence was readily given, since the Baron's diplomatic duties are merely nominal. To quote his own words, 'Von Blitzenberg is a nice fellow, and it pleases the English ladies to play with him.'"

Even Lady Grillyer was a trifle taken aback at this description of her son-in-law, while Alicia turned scarlet with anger.

"I don't believe he said anything of the sort!" she cried. "You both of you only want to hurt me and insult Rudolph! I won't stand it!"

She was already on her feet to leave them, when her mother stopped her, and Sir Justin hastened to explain.

"No reflection upon the Baron's character was intended, I a.s.sure you.

The Prince merely meant to imply that he represented the social rather than the business side of the emba.s.sy. And both are equally necessary, I a.s.sure you--equally essential, Baroness, believe me."