Temporal Power: A Study in Supremacy Part 68

"Great? What do you mean? I am Deputy for the city, it is true--but that is not the height of my ambition; it is only a step towards it."

"To what do you aspire?" she queried. "A place in the Ministry? You will get that if you wait long enough! And then--will you be satisfied?"

"No--I shall never be satisfied--never till--"

He broke off and shifted his position. His fierce eyes rested tenderly upon her as she sat holding the motherless infant caressingly in her arms.

"You have heard the latest news?" he asked presently, "That Carl Perousse has left the country?"

"No, I have not heard that," said Lotys; "But why was he allowed to go without being punished for his dishonesty?"

"To punish him, would have involved the punishment of many more a.s.sociated with him," replied Thord; "His estates are confiscated;--the opportunity was given him to escape, in order to avoid further Ministerial scandals,--and he has taken the chance afforded him!"

She was silent.

"Jost too has gone," pursued Thord; "He has sold his paper to his chief rival. So that now both journals are amalgamated under one head, and work for the same cause--our cause, and the King's."

Lotys looked up with a slight smile.

"It is the same old system then?" she said. "For whereas before there was one newspaper subsidised by a fraudulent Ministry, there are now two, subsidised by the Royal Government;--with which the Socialist party is united!"

He frowned.

"You mistake! We shall subsidise no newspaper whatever. We shall not pursue any such mistaken policy."

"Believe me, you will be compelled to do so, Sergius!" she declared, still smiling; "Or some other force will step in! Do you not see that politics always revolve in the same monotonous round? You have called me the Soul of an Ideal,--but even when I worked my hardest with you, I knew it was an Ideal that could never be realised! But the practice of your theories led me among the poor, where I felt I could be useful,--and for this reason I conjoined what brains I had, what strength I had, with yours. Yet, no matter how men talk of 'Revolution,'

any and every form of government is bound to run on the old eternal lines, whether it be Imperial, Socialistic or Republican. Men are always the same children--never satisfied,--ever clamouring for change,--tired of one toy and crying for another,--so on and on,--till the end! I would rather save a life"--and she glanced pityingly down upon the sleeping infant she held-"than upset a throne!"

"I quite believe that;" said Sergius slowly; "You are a woman, most womanly! If you could only learn to love----"

He paused, startled at the sudden rush of colour that spread over her cheeks and brow; but it was a wave of crimson that soon died away, leaving her very pale.

"Love is not for me, Sergius!" she said; "I am no longer young. Besides, the days of romance never existed for me at all, and now it is too late.

I have grown too much into the habit of looking upon men as poor little emmets, clambering up and down the same tiny hill of earth,--their pa.s.sions, their ambitions, their emotions, their fightings and conquests, their panoply and pride, do not interest me, though they move me to pity; I seem to stand alone, looking beyond, straight through the glorious world of Nature, up to the infinite s.p.a.ces above, searching for G.o.d!"

"Yet you care for that waif?" said Thord with a gesture towards the child she held.

"Because it is helpless," she answered; "only that! If it ever lives to grow up and be a man, it will forget that a woman ever held it, or cherished it so! No wild beast of the forest--no treacherous serpent of the jungle, is more cruel in its inherited nature, than man when he deals with woman;--as lover, he betrays her,--as wife, he neglects her,--as mother, he forgets her!"

"You have a bad opinion of my s.e.x!" said Thord, half angrily; "Would you say thus much of the King?"

She started, then controlled herself.

"The King is brave,--but beyond exceptional courage, I do not think he differs from other men."

"Have you seen him lately?"

"No."

The answer came coldly, and with evident resentment at the query. Thord hesitated a minute or two, looking at her yearningly; then he suddenly laid his hand on her arm.

"Lotys!" he said in a half-whisper; "If you would only love me! If you would be my wife!"

She raised her dark-blue pensive eyes.

"My poor Sergius! With all your triumphs, do you still hanker for a wayside weed? Alas!--the weed has tough roots that cannot be pulled up to please you! I would make you happy if I could, dear friend!--but in the way you ask, I cannot!"

His heart beat thickly.

"Why?"

"Why? Ask why the rain will not melt marble into snow! I love you, Sergius--but not with such love as you demand. And I would not be your wife for all the world!"

He restrained himself with difficulty.

"Again--why?"

She gave a slight movement of impatience.

"In the first place, because we should not agree. In the second place, because I abhor the very idea of marriage. I see, day by day, what marriage means, even among the poor--the wreck of illusions--the death of ideals--the despairing monotony of a mere struggle to live--"

"I shall not be poor now;" said Thord; "All my work would be to make you happy, Lotys! I would surround you with every grace and luxury--with love, with worship, with tenderness! With your intelligence and fascination you would be honoured,--famous!"

He broke off, interrupted by her gesture of annoyance.

"Let me hear no more of this, Sergius!" she said. "You were very good to me when I was a castaway child, and I do not forget it. But you must not urge a claim upon me to which I cannot respond. I have given some of the best years of my life to a.s.sist your work, to win you your followers,--and to advance what I have always recognised as an exalted, though impossible creed--but now, for the rest of the time left to me, I must have my own way!"

He sprang up suddenly and confronted her.

"My G.o.d!" he cried. "Is it possible you do not understand! All my work--all my plans--all my scheming and plotting has been for you--to make you happy! To give you high place and power! Without you, what do I care for the world? What do I care whether men are rich or poor--whether they starve or die! It is you I want to serve--you! It is for your sake I have desired to win honour and position. Have pity on me, Lotys! Have pity! I have seen you grow up to womanhood--I have loved every inch of your stature--every hair of the gold on your head--every glance of your eyes--every bright flash of your intelligent spirit! Oh, I have loved you, and love you, Lotys, as no man ever loved woman! Everything I have attempted--everything I have done, has been that you might think me worthier of love. For the Country and the People I care nothing--nothing! I only care for you!"

She rose, holding the sleeping child to her like a shield. Her features seemed to have grown rigid with an inflexible coldness.

"So then," she said, "You are no better than the men you have blamed!

You confess yourself as false to the People as the Minister you have displaced! You have served their Cause,--not because you love them, but simply because you love Me!--and you would force me to become your wife, not because you love Me, so much as you love Yourself! Self alone is at the core of your social creed! Why, you are not a whit higher than the vulgarest millionaire that ever stole a people's Trade to further his own ends!"

"Lotys! Lotys!" he cried, stung to the quick; "You judge me wrongly--by Heaven, you do!"

"I judge you only by your own words;" she answered steadily; "They condemn you more than I do. I thought you were sincere in your love for the People! I thought your work was all for them,--not for me! I judged that you sought to gain authority in order to remedy their many wrongs;--but if, after all, you have been fighting your way to power merely to make yourself, as you thought, more acceptable to me as a husband, you have deceived me in the honesty of your intentions as grossly as you have deceived the King!"

"The King!" he cried; "The King!"

She flashed a proud and pa.s.sionate glance upon him--and then--he suddenly found himself alone. She had left the room; and though he knew there was only one wall, one door between them, he dared not follow.

Glancing around him at the simple furniture of the chamber he stood in, which, though only an attic, was bright and fresh and sweet, with bunches of wildflowers set here and there in simple and cheap crystal vases, he sighed heavily. The poor and 'obscure' life was perhaps, after all, the highest, holiest and best! All at once his eyes lighted on one large cl.u.s.ter of flowers that were neither wild nor common, a knot of rare roses and magnificent orchids, tied together with a golden ribbon.

He looked at them jealously, and his soul was a.s.sailed by sudden resentment and suspicion. His face changed, his teeth closed hard on his under lip, and he clenched his hand unconsciously.

"If it is so--if it should be so!" he muttered; "There may be yet another and more complete Day of Fate!"