Our Own Set Part 20

"What difference does that make?" said Sterzl; "if this is the view people took of me and my proceedings! Well, and after all they were right--I should have liked to see my sister brilliantly married--I meant it well ... and I have made myself ridiculous and have been the ruin of the poor child."

His rage and misery were beyond control; he walked up and down, then suddenly stood still, looking out of the open window; then again he paced the room.

"Sempaly is incomprehensible," he began, "quite incomprehensible! I had no very high opinion of his character--particularly lately; but I could not have supposed him capable of such baseness and cruelty. What do you gather from his not coming here to-day?"

"He simply has not happened to see the paper," the general suggested.

"He is gone on some expedition with his brother and his cousins."

"Well, but even supposing that he has not read this article," said Sterzl, "it still is very strange that, as matters stand between him and Zinka, he should have let two days go by without making any attempt to see her."

The general was silent.

"You know him better than I do," Cecil began again presently, "and, as Zinka tells me, you were present during some part of this romantic moonlight promenade. Do you think he seriously intends to marry her?"

"I know that he is madly in love with her, and even the Ilsenberghs, who were discussing the matter at my house with the Princess Vulpini, saw no alternative for him--irrespective of his attachment to her--but to make her an offer."

"We shall see," murmured Sterzl. He looked at the clock: "half past nine!" he exclaimed. "This is becoming quite mysterious. I will try once more to see him at his rooms; his cha.s.seur will perhaps know when he is expected to return home. Would you mind remaining here?" he added in a low voice; "keep my mother from going to Zinka; the poor child cannot bear it;" and he hurried off.

In about half an hour he returned.

"Well?" asked the general.

"He set out at one o'clock for Frascati, with the prince, the Jatinskys, and Siegburg," said Sterzl gloomily. "When I asked whether he was to be back this evening the man said certainly, for he was to set off to-morrow morning with his excellency the amba.s.sador. He has been afraid to declare his engagement for fear of a scene with his brother--he is gone out of Rome for fear of a scene with me--'High Life' was lying open on his writing-table."

They heard the light rustle of a dress. Sterzl looked round--behind him stood Zinka with tumbled hair and anxious, eager, tear-dimmed eyes.

"Zinka!" he cried, stepping forward to catch her; for her gaze was fixed, she staggered, put out her hands with a helpless gesture and fell into his arms. He laid her head tenderly on his shoulder and carried her away.

CHAPTER V.

Sempaly's nervous system was very sensitive and his ear remarkably delicate; he had in consequence a horror--a perfect mania of aversion--for any scene which might involve excitement and loud talking. Besides this he had the peculiarity--common enough with the spoilt children of fortune--of always ignoring as far as possible the inevitable difficulties of life in the hope that some _deus ex machina_ would interfere to set matters straight for him.

His pa.s.sion for Zinka was perfectly genuine, at once vehement and tender; far from diminishing, it had, if possible, increased during these last three days. Though that hour of sentimental and guileless talk with Zinka under the midnight moon had for the time satisfied her, it had only fevered him; and while his cowardly double-dealing had lowered him in her esteem, her straightforward pride had raised her infinitely in his. He was utterly miserable, but this did not prevent him from allowing his good-natured senior to pay his enormous debts, nor--in order to propitiate him--from paying specious attentions to his cousins. It must, however, be said in extenuation, that this flirtation was not so much deliberate as instinctive, for he was a man whose untutored and unbounded impulse to make himself agreeable led him irresistibly to do his utmost to produce a pleasant impression, even at the sacrifice of his honor. If, only once, during these three days, he had had an opportunity of speaking to Zinka all might perhaps have turned out differently. He would probably have found it easy, with his wonderful fascination of person, to recover the ground he had lost; and her proud rect.i.tude might possibly have influenced him to take a bolder course of action. But, in the first instance, he could not intrude on Zinka while she was sitting by her little friend Gabrielle, and the idea of rushing into an explanation with Sterzl did not smile on his fancy.

Thus he let the hours slip by, till, on the Friday morning, the luckless copy of 'High Life' was brought into him addressed in a feigned hand. This made him furious, and he was on the point of rushing off to the palazetto when he remembered that he had promised to be ready to join the party to Frascati at one o'clock. He had dipped his pen and prepared the paper to send an excuse to the Hotel de Londres when there was a knock, and Prince Sempaly, with his two cousins, walked in, half an hour before the appointed time.

"What a surprise!... An unexpected honor!" he exclaimed somewhat disconcerted.

"That is what we intended," said Polyxena laughing. "Hum! there is a rather p.r.o.nounced perfume of latakia in your room--but the whole effect is pretty, very pretty," while Nini looked timidly about her with her fawn-like eyes. A bachelor's quarters are, as is well known, one of the most interesting mysteries that ever exercise the curious imagination of a young lady.

"The girls insisted on seeing your den," the prince explained, "so I had to bring them, whether or no, while Siegburg amuses their mamma."

"Why, you yourself proposed it, Oscar!" cried Nini.

Sempaly bowed. "From this time henceforth this room is consecrated ground," he said gallantly--and "High Life" was lying on his desk all the time and an iron fist seemed clenched upon his heart. If his brother had but come alone ... but with these two girls ... it was crucial.

Xena began to touch and examine all his odds and ends, to open his books, and at last to hover round his writing-table where, with graceful impertinence, she was about to take up the fatal sheet.

"Stop, stop!" cried Nicki, "that is not for your eyes, Xena."

"Look, but touch not," said the prince, with a good-natured laugh; "young maidens like you are not permitted to inspect the secrets of a bachelor's rooms too closely. You might seize a scorpion before we could interfere. Besides, we must not keep your mother waiting any longer, children; make haste and get ready, Nicki."

For a moment Sempaly tried to think of an excuse; then he reflected that it really was not worth while to spoil the pleasure of Oscar's last day--all might be set right afterwards. So he only asked for time to write a note, and scribbled a few lines to Sterzl in which he formally proposed for Zinka. This note he confided to a porter desiring him to carry it at once to the secretary's office.

After this he was for a time very much pleased with himself; but, as the afternoon wore on, the more uneasy he became, and it was to this unrest that most of the tender glances were due that the prince cast alternately on him and on Nini. He felt more and more as if he were being driven into a trap; in the Villa Aldobrandini he found an issue from some of his difficulties. Suddenly, as they were standing by the great fountain, Nini and he found themselves _tete-a-tete_, a circ.u.mstance arising from the consentaneous willingness of the rest of the party to give them such an opportunity. He seized the propitious moment to disburden his soul. He addressed her as his sister, confessed his secret betrothal, and implored her kind interest for Zinka. Nini, who felt as though she had been stabbed to the heart, was brave as became her and for sheer dread of betraying her own feelings, she tried to take a pleasure she was far from feeling in the success of his love affair. He kissed her hand and kept near her for the rest of the day.

His brother, who perceived that the young couple had come to an understanding, communicated his observations to Countess Jatinska with extreme satisfaction. He was himself a man of strong and lofty feeling, free from all duplicity, and he could not conceive that a young man could have anything to say to a very handsome girl in private but to make love to her.

The day was at an end. With that want of precaution of which only foreigners in Rome can be guilty, they set out homewards much too late and did not reach the hotel before ten. Here Nemesis overtook Sempaly.

At the end of supper, which the little party had served to them in the countess' private sitting-room, and at which the confidential footing on which Sempaly stood with regard to his cousin was thrown into greater relief, the prince, with a frank smile of self-satisfaction at his powers of divination, raised his gla.s.s and said: "To the health of the happy couple."

Nini turned crimson; Nicki turned pale. He was in the trap now. Brought to bay he could do nothing but turn upon the foe whom he could not evade. He was possessed by a wild impulse to s.n.a.t.c.h the odious mask from his own face.

"And who are the happy couple?" he asked.

"You need not be so mysterious about it, Nicki," cried his brother warmly. "Of you and...." but a glance at Nini reduced him to silence.

"Of me and Fraulein Zinka Sterzl," said Sempaly with vehement emphasis.

The blood flew to the prince's head; rage and horror fairly deprived him of speech. Countess Jatinska laughed awkwardly, Polyxena pursed her lips disdainfully while Nini gave her cousin her hand and said loyally:

"Your bride shall always find a friend in me."

But now the prince's wrath broke loose--he was furious; he swore that this insane marriage should never take place, and could not conceive how his brother--a man old enough to know better--could have allowed such a piece of madcap folly to enter his head.

The ladies rose and withdrew; Sempaly, who till within a few minutes had been so weak and vacillating, had suddenly become rigid in obstinacy and he desired the waiter to bring him the fateful number of 'High Life'. The prince read it, but his first observation was: "Well!

and a pretty state the world would soon come to if every man who lets a charming adventuress entrap him into an indiscretion were to pay for it by marrying her!"

At this insulting epithet applied to Zinka, Sempaly fired up. He did not attempt to screen himself, he defended Zinka as against himself, with the most unsparing self-accusation. Egotistical, sensitive, and morally effete as he was, he was still a gentleman, and he now set no limits to his self-indictment; it seemed as though he thought that by heaping invective on his own head he could expiate the baseness into which he had been betrayed during the last few days. He told the whole story: that he had loved Zinka from the first time of seeing her: that he had been on the point of making her an offer when an accidental interruption had suddenly s.n.a.t.c.hed him from the heaven of hope and bliss: that he had neglected and forsaken her: that his constant intimacy with his handsome cousins had raised a barrier between him and Zinka; then, how he had met her that night at the Brancaleones', and how, as he helped her to rise after her tumble, his pa.s.sion had taken entire possession of him--all this he told, down to the moment when she had laid her head on his shoulder. "And before such guileless trust what man is there that would not bow in reverence!" he ended, "all Rome can bear witness to her sweetness and goodness; ask whom you will--Marie Vulpini, Truyn, even the Ilsenberghs--or Siegburg here."

The prince turned to Siegburg.

"I can make neither head nor tail of the matter," he said. "Is all he says of this girl true, or mere raving?"

Siegburg's answer was simple, eager, and plain; it is, at all times, a difficult thing for a young man to praise a girl without reflecting on her in any way, but Siegburg's testimony in Zinka's favor was a little masterpiece of genuine and respectful enthusiasm. Prince Sempaly's face grew darker as he spoke.

"And the young lady in question is the girl we met the other day in the Piazzi?" he said.

"Yes."

"The sister of the secretary of legation whom the amba.s.sador introduced to me yesterday, and the niece of my old colonel?"

"Yes."

"And from what you tell me not only an absolutely blameless creature, but universally beloved?"