The Adventure of Princess Sylvia Part 21

"No; I do not now intend that you shall marry the girl. Knowing her to be an impostor, I know that the most degenerate Von Markstein is too good to mate with her," said the old man, the lash of his tongue cutting in two ways at once. "But Maximilian has lost his head, and there's only one hope left, it seems, that he will find it in time to save the country a great disaster. It must be proved to him that the woman he honours is worthless; that while she angles to catch a big fish, she does not disdain to play with a small one."

"Meaning, we'll show the Emperor that Miss de Courcy has been flirting with me," finished Otto. "With all my heart, dear brother, if that were possible--for I owe her a grudge. But I confess I did not tell you all there was to tell, this morning, when I rode over from Schloss Lynarberg. I spared myself the embarra.s.sment of mentioning that, after the garden scene which I described to you, Miss de Courcy and I had a little private scene of our own. I was stupid enough to choose the wrong moment for declaring my sentiments and expressing my sympathy.

Not only did the young lady refuse to forgive me, at the time, but I know very well that she never will forgive me, in future. She will have nothing to do with me after this; she has forbidden me to speak to her again. Therefore, with the best intentions in the world, I am----"

"You are a fool!" exclaimed the Chancellor.

"Not quite, I trust. Only wait till I have finished, and even my brother may admit that, though there's no hope for me in an affair of the heart with Miss de Courcy, there is a little still left for me as the aide-de camp of a diplomatist. Who do you think has just arrived in Salzbruck?"

"The devil, I should say, by the way things are going," returned the Chancellor.

"I've heard him called so more than once. That's why I thought he might be useful now. And as it happens, he's in a mood for mischief. I met him on my way to the station, in his dog-cart, in which he had driven to town from Bunden."

"From Bunden! Then it is the Prince----"

"Of Darkness; you've just named him."

The Chancellor heard neither the flippant interruption nor the still more flippant laugh accompanying it. His hard features brightened with a grim joy. "Providence fights for us!" he murmured.

"With the devil for a weapon, you would put it, brother? Or should we rather be polite, and say that the Prince is like the ram caught by its horns in the bushes, ready for sacrifice?"

"I pray that he be caught, and not already out of reach for there's no single moment to be lost, if this marvellous chance is not to slip past me," said the Chancellor, too deeply preoccupied to resent his brother's levity.

"What reward shall I deserve if I take you to him inside the half-hour?"

"You do not forget your own interests, no matter what issues are at stake! But you have served me in this instance. At the beginning of the quarter you shall have the sum I mentioned the other day; while, if the Prince works with me, and the cause is won, you shall be my heir; I promise it. Where is the Prince?"

"By a queer deal of the cards, by this time he's at the place you'd choose to have him, of all others; the Hohenburgerhof. He had been to call on you at your town house, he told me, and not finding you at home, meant to dine early at the hotel and look you up again later. He left a note, it seems, which you will find if you go home."

"It can wait; I go to the Prince direct," p.r.o.nounced the Chancellor.

And the coachman was bidden to drive his fastest to the Hohenburgerhof, in the Maximilian Platz.

The Prince who, according to "Iron Heart's" belief, had been sent to him by Providence, was engaged, when the Chancellor arrived, in selecting the wines for his dinner. He was in the private apartments which he had taken for the afternoon, and expressed himself through an obsequious servant as being delighted to receive Count von Markstein.

Otto's mission having been fulfilled and finished, it was only the broad figure in the gray overcoat which was ushered ceremoniously into the room known at the hotel as the "Purple Salon of the Royal Suite."

As the Chancellor was shown in, a young man jumped up from an easy-chair, flung aside the wine list, and came toward the guest with extended hands. It would have been useless to scour the world in search of a handsomer young man than he. Even Otto von Markstein, justly remarkable for his good looks, was insignificant compared with this youth. He and the Chancellor were not new acquaintances, by any means, and the vital organ which had given "Iron Heart" his nickname was not to be softened by beauty in male or female; but at this moment he rejoiced in the physical perfection of the Prince who would be a dangerous rival even for an emperor.

Count von Markstein had p.r.o.nounced his brother a fool for throwing away his chances of success in a flirtation with Miss de Courcy, but he was almost ready now to see a gift from Fortune in Otto's cause for spite against the girl. Had she not offended the young man's _amour-propre_ in revenge for his tactless declaration, Otto's natural instinct would have been to protect her from rather than deliver her up to the enemy. And had Otto let him--Eberhard--go home, without knowledge of the Prince's presence in Salzbruck, hours must have been ignorantly squandered--precious hours, big with the fate of Rhaetia.

"My dear Prince!" exclaimed Count von Markstein, taking into his gnarled old hands the two young, strong, white ones held out to him.

"My dear Chancellor!" echoed the bland Apollo, smiling, and wasting in that act dimples that would have transformed a plain woman into a beauty.

"You have been to my house?"

"I had. No doubt my friend Otto has seen and told you."

"He would be honoured by the appellation. It was the news he gave me which brought me here in haste from the station."

"Good. You will dine with me, then. I insist! It was to be an early dinner, that I might call afterward on you at the first moment when your servants thought you likely to return."

"I thank you, and in other circ.u.mstances nothing could give me greater pleasure. But I have business of the sort which makes even a weary man forget the delights of good companionship and a good dinner."

"Is the business _my_ business, Chancellor?"

"I hope that you will think it so. A least it is business that must be done now or never, and means life or death to those whom it concerns.

How it is to be done, or whether done at all, depends upon you; and it could be placed in no more skilful hands. If I had been given my choice of an instrument out of the whole world, had I dared I would have chosen you."

"This sounds like an adventure."

"It may indeed be an adventure, and an act of justice too."

"I expected nothing so good when I came over the frontier this morning. You can guess what brought me to my little den in the Niederwald at this particular time. It was not for hunting. But, though my mind is full of certain grave affairs, I trust I have still the instinct of a sportsman."

"I am sure of that. Especially when your birds and mine can be killed with one shot."

"Chancellor, you interest me more and more."

The old man smiled grat.i.tude, but under the bristling brows glowed a light like the last embers in a dying fire. "Upstairs," said he abruptly, "is a pretty woman. She says her name is Mary de Courcy, though there are some of us who know better. Her love affairs threaten a public scandal."

"Ah, the lady of whom all Rhaetia talks is under the same roof with me!" exclaimed the young man, with slightly heightened colour.

"To you, more than to any other, I can speak freely of our danger,"

said the Chancellor. "This girl has driven the Emperor into a fit of moon-madness. Heaven grant it may soon pa.s.s; and blessed would be the man who brought my poor master to his senses. If you would, Prince, _you might be that man_. The sword of justice is ready for your hand."

"That sentence has a solemn ring. I know what I came here to do. But you seem to be preparing a different programme. Tell me, what sort of woman is this who has bewitched your grave Maximilian?"

"She is beautiful and clever, as women are clever; but not clever enough to fight her battle out against you and me."

"Me? I do not fight with women; I make love to them."

"Ah, you have said it, my dear Prince. That is what I want."

Apollo laughed. "Describe the girl," he said. "Is she fair or dark, tall or short, a slim Diana or a sumptuous Venus?"

"She is tall and slender, with the pink and white skin of a child; and she is dark-browed and yellow-haired, like the beauties of Austria,"

replied the Chancellor, doing justice to the enemy's charms, not so much through conscientious motives as because he desired to paint a pleasing picture. "Her eyes are brown or violet; having nearly reached my threescore years and ten, I cannot tell you which. Her nose is of the Greek type, yet a trifle more piquant, it may be. Doubtless a poet would rave of her lips, red as geraniums on snow; and even I can affirm that when the lady looks down, and then looks up smiling with great play of dark curled lashes, the effect is somewhat striking. I can imagine that smile might quicken the pulses of a younger man than I."

"It would quicken mine only to hear you tell of it, if you had not put a maggot in my head that tickles me to laughter instead of raptures,"

said the Prince, who was fully mindful of his own supremacy over women. "Has this girl who calls herself De Courcy a little black mole on her forehead just above the left eye brow, and in that notable smile of hers, does the mouth point upward at the right, like a fairy sign-post showing the way to a small scar that masquerades as a dimple?"

The Chancellor gravely reflected for a moment, and then replied that to the best of his belief both these marks were distinctly visible on the lady's countenance. He did not add that he had met her but once, and had no eye for delicate details; for whatever the Prince's theory might be, it seemed advisable to establish it. "Is it possible that you have met this dangerous young person?" he inquired, hiding eagerness.

"Well, I begin to believe that I have reason for thinking so; exactly why, I will tell you at another time--it means a confession. But a lady answering the description you have given might easily be in this neighbourhood--I'd heard she was in Rhaetia; in fact, when I suddenly made up my mind to come, I thought it not impossible that I might meet her. We'd quarrelled, after my having been weak enough one day to take her imprudently into my confidence concerning family affairs. This _coup_ she has so nearly made may be by way of revenge on me. She's capable of the clever conception too; but where did she develop the mother? I fancy I have heard that there _is_ a mother?"

"There is a marionette which answers to the name," drily announced the Chancellor. "But mothers are articles of easy manufacture."

The Prince was immensely amused. "No, she wouldn't stick at a mother, if she wanted one," he chuckled, "and, while she was about it, she appears to have annexed a whole family tree as well. That mole and the scar-dimple--you're sure of them, Chancellor? And the drawing up of the lips to the right when she smiles?"