Temporal Power: A Study in Supremacy Part 46

CHAPTER XXII

A FAIR DeBUTANTE

That same afternoon there was a mysterious commotion at the Palace,--whispers ran from lip to lip among the few who had seen her, that a beautiful woman,--lovelier than the Queen herself,--had, under the escort of the uncommunicative Professor von Glauben, pa.s.sed into the presence of the King and Queen, to receive the honour of a private audience. Who was she? What was she? Where did she come from? How was she dressed? This last question was answered first, being easiest to deal with. She was attired all in white,--'like a picture' said some--'like a statue' said others. No one, however, dared ask any direct question concerning her,--her reception, whoever she was, being of a strictly guarded nature, and peremptory orders having been given to admit no one to the Queen's presence-chamber, to which apartment she had been taken by the King's physician. But such dazzling beauty as hers could not go altogether unnoticed by the most casual attendant, sentinel, or lord-in-waiting, and the very fact that special commands had been issued to guard all the doors of entrance to the Royal apartments on either hand, during her visit, only served to pique and inflame the general curiosity.

Meantime,--while lesser and inferior personages were commenting on the possibility of the unknown fair one being concerned with some dramatic incident that might have to be included among the King's numerous gallantries,--the unconscious subject of their discussion was quietly seated alone in an ante-room adjoining the Queen's apartments, waiting till Professor von Glauben should announce that their Majesties were ready to receive her. She was not troubled or anxious, or in any way ill at ease. She looked curiously upon the splendid evidences of Royal state, wealth and luxury which surrounded her, with artistic appreciation but no envy. She caught sight of her own face and figure in a tall mirror opposite to her, set in a silver frame; and she studied herself quietly and critically with the calm knowledge that there was nothing to deplore or to regret in the way G.o.d and Nature had been pleased to make her. She was not in the slightest degree vain,--but she knew that a healthy and quiet mind in a healthy and unspoilt body, together form what is understood as the highest beauty,--and that these two elements were not lacking in her. Moreover, she was conscious of a great love warming her heart and strengthening her soul,--and with this great motive-force to brace her nerves and add extra charm to her natural loveliness, she had no fear. She had enjoyed the swift voyage across the sparkling sea, and the fresh air had made her eyes doubly l.u.s.trous, her complexion even more than usually fair and brilliant.

She did not permit herself to be rendered unhappy or anxious as to the possible att.i.tude of the King and Queen towards her,--she was prepared for all contingencies, and had fully made up her mind what to say.

Therefore, there was no need to fret over the position, or to be timorously concerned because she was called upon to confront those who by human law alone were made superior in rank to the rest of mankind.

"In G.o.d's sight all men are equal!" she said to herself: "The King is a mere helpless babe at birth, dependant on others,--as he is a mere helpless corpse at death. It is only men's own foolish ideas and conventions of usage in life that make any difference!"

At that moment the Professor entered hurriedly, and impulsively seizing her hands in his own, kissed them and pressed them tenderly. His face was flushed--he was evidently strongly excited.

"Go in there now, Princess!" he whispered, pointing to the adjacent room, of which the door stood ajar; "And may G.o.d be on your side!"

She rose up, and releasing her hands gently from his nervous grasp, smiled.

"Do not be afraid!" she said; "You, too, are coming?"

"I follow you!" he replied.

And to himself he said: "Ach, Gott in Himmel! Will she keep her so beautiful calm? If she will--if she can--a throne would be well lost for such a woman!"

And he watched her with an admiration amounting almost to fear, as she pa.s.sed before him and entered the Royal presence-chamber with a proud light step, a grace of bearing and a supreme distinction, which, had she been there on a day of diplomatic receptions, would have made half the women accustomed to attend Court, look like the merest vulgar plebeians.

The room she entered was very large and lofty. A dazzle of gold ceiling, painted walls and mirrors flashed upon her eyes, with the hue of silken curtains and embroidered hangings,--the heavy perfume of hundreds of flowers in tall crystal vases and wide gilded stands made the air drowsy and odorous, and for a moment, Gloria, just fresh from the sweet breath of the sea, felt sickened and giddy,--but she recovered quickly, and raised her eyes fearlessly to the two motionless figures, which, like idols set in a temple for worship, waited her approach. The King, stiffly upright, and arrayed in military uniform, stood near the Queen, who was seated in a throne-like chair over-canopied with gold,--her trailing robes were of a pale azure hue bordered with ermine, and touched here and there with silver, giving out reflexes of light, stolen as it seemed from the sea and sky,--and her beautiful face, with its clear-cut features and cold pallor, might have been carved out of ivory, for all the interest or emotion expressed upon it. Gloria came straight towards her, then stopped. With her erect supple form, proud head and fair features, she looked the living embodiment of sovereign womanhood,--and the Queen, meeting the full starry glance of her eyes, stirred among her Royal draperies, and raised herself with a slow graceful air of critical observation, in which there was a touch of languid wonder mingled with contempt. Still Gloria stood motionless,--neither abashed nor intimidated,--she made no curtsey or reverential salutation of any kind, and presently removing her gaze from the Queen, she turned to the King.

"You sent for me," she said; "And I have come. What do you want with me?"

The King smiled. What a dazzling Perfection was here, he thought! A second Una unarmed, and strong in the courage of innocence! But he was acting a special part, and he determined to play it well and thoroughly.

So he gave her no reply, but turned with a stiff air to Von Glauben.

"Tell the girl to make her obeisance to the Queen!" he said.

The Professor very reluctantly approached the 'Glory-of-the-Sea' with this suggestion, cautiously whispered. Gloria obeyed at once. Moving swiftly to the Queen's chair, she bent low before her.

"Madam!" she said, "I am told to kneel to you, because you are the Queen,--but it is not for that I do so. I kneel, because you are my husband's mother!"

And raising the cold impa.s.sive hand covered with great gems, that rested idly on the rich velvets so near to her touch, she gently kissed it,--then rose up to her full height again.

"Is it always like this here?" she asked, gazing around her. "Do you always sit thus in a chair, dressed grandly and quite silent?"

The smile deepened on the King's face; the Queen, perforce moved at last from her inertia, half rose with an air of amazement and indignation, and Von Glauben barely saved himself from laughing outright.

"You," continued Gloria, fixing her bright glance on the King; "You have seen me before! You have spoken to me. Then why do you pretend not to know me now? Is that Court manners? If so, they are not good or kind!"

The King relaxed his formal att.i.tude, and addressed his Consort in a low tone.

"It is no use dealing with this girl in the conventional way," he said; "She is a mere child at heart, simple and uneducated;--we must treat her as such. Perhaps you will speak to her first?"

"No, Sir, I much prefer that you should do so," she replied. "When I have heard her answers to you, it will be perhaps my turn!"

Thereupon the King advanced a step or two, and Gloria regarded him steadfastly. Meeting the pure light of those lovely eyes, he lost something of his ordinary self-possession,--he was conscious of a certain sense of embarra.s.sment and foolishness;--his very uniform, ablaze with gold and jewelled orders, seemed a clown's costume compared with the cla.s.sic simplicity of Gloria's homespun garb, which might have fitly clothed a Greek G.o.ddess. Sensible of his nervous irritation, he however overcame it by an effort, and summoning all his dignity, he 'graciously,' as the newspaper parasites put it, extended his hand.

Gloria smiled archly.

"I kissed your hand the other day when you were cross!" she said; "You would like it kissed again? There!"

And with easy grace of gesture she pressed her lips lightly upon it. It would have needed something stronger than mere flesh and blood to resist the natural playfulness and charm of her action, combined with her unparalleled beauty, and the King, who was daily and hourly proving for himself the power and intensity of that Spirit of Man which makes clamour for higher things than Man's conventionalities, became for the moment as helplessly overwhelmed and defeated by a woman's smile, a woman's eyes, as any hero of old times, whose conquests have been reported to us in history as achieved for the sake of love and beauty.

But he was compelled to disguise his thoughts, and to maintain an outward expression of formality, particularly in the presence of his Queen-Consort,--and he withdrew the hand that bore her soft kiss upon it with a well-simulated air of chill tolerance. Then he spoke gravely, in measured precise accents.

"Gloria Ronsard, we have sent for you in all kindness," he said; "out of a sincere wish to remedy any wrong which our son, the Crown Prince has, in the light folly and hot impulse of his youth, done to you in your life. We are given to understand that there is a boy-and-girl attachment between you; that he won your attachment under a disguised ident.i.ty, and that you were thus innocently deceived,--and that, in order to satisfy his own honourable scruples, as well as your sense of maidenly virtue, he has, still under a disguise, gone through the ceremony of marriage with you. Therefore, it seems that you now imagine yourself to be his lawful wife. This is a very natural mistake for a girl to make who is as young and inexperienced as you are, and I am sorry,--very sorry for the false position in which my son the Crown Prince has so thoughtlessly placed you. But, after very earnest consideration, I,--and the Queen also,--think it much better for you to know the truth at once, so that you may fully realize the situation, and then, by the exercise of a little common sense, spare yourself any further delusion and pain. All we can do to repair the evil, you may rest a.s.sured shall be done. But you must thoroughly understand that the Crown Prince, as heir to the Throne, cannot marry out of his own station. If he should presume to do so, through some mad and hot-headed impulse, such a marriage is not admitted or agreed to by the nation. Thus you will see plainly that, though you have gone through the marriage ceremony with him, that counts as nothing in your case,--for, according to the law of the realm, and in the sight of the world, you are not, and cannot be his wife!"

Gloria raised her deep bright eyes and smiled.

"No?" she said, and then was silent.

The King regarded her with surprise, and a touch of anger. He had expected tears, pa.s.sionate declamations, and reiterated a.s.surances of the unalterable and indissoluble tie between herself and her lover, but this little indifferently-queried "No?" upset all his calculations.

"Have you nothing to say?" he asked, somewhat sternly.

"What should I say?" she responded, still smiling; "You are the King; it is for you to speak!"

"She does not understand you, Sir," interrupted the Queen coldly; "Your words are possibly too elaborate for her simple comprehension!"

Gloria turned a fearless beautiful glance upon her.

"Pardon me, Madam, but I do understand!" she said; "I understand that by the law of G.o.d I am your son's wife, and that by the law of the world I am no wife! I abide by the law of G.o.d!"

There was a moment's dead silence. Professor von Glauben gave a discreet cough to break it, and the King, reminded of his presence turned towards him.

"Has she no sense of the position?" he demanded.

"Sir, I have every reason to believe that she grasps it thoroughly!"

replied Von Glauben with a deferential bow.

"Then why----"

But here he was again interrupted by the Queen. She, raising herself in her chair, her beautiful head and shoulders lifted statue-like from her enshrining draperies of azure and white, stretched forth a hand and beckoned Gloria towards her.

"Come here, child!" she said; then as Gloria advanced with evident reluctance, she added; "Come closer--you must not be afraid of me!"

Gloria smiled.

"Nay, Madam, trouble not yourself at all in that regard! I never was afraid of anyone!"