The Adventure of Princess Sylvia Part 23

"If she makes the effort, we can afford to be audience and amuse ourselves with her acting, as the comedy plays itself out," said the Prince.

"There is no doubt in my mind--whatever may be her conception of the part--as to the final tableau. And, after all, it is that alone with which you concern yourself--eh, Chancellor?"

"It is that alone," echoed the old man. "And now, lest by a hitch in the stage mechanism--since you choose that figure of speech--something should yet go wrong, I must make haste home, that I may be in time to receive the Emperor's communication from Wandeck."

"If he should forget to send--_there_ would be rather a serious. .h.i.tch, would it not?"

"The Emperor has never, in my knowledge of him, forgotten to keep a promise, and I am certain he is not enough changed to do so even now.

_Au revoir_, Prince; till half-past nine."

"Till half-past nine, when a warm welcome awaits you, from _one of the dramatis personae_. For the other--I cannot answer."

Laughing, the two grasped hands on their understanding. The Chancellor went out to his carriage, which had been kept at the door and a few minutes later he was conversing with Maximilian through the telephone.

CHAPTER XV

THE OLDNESS OF THE CHANCELLOR

MAXIMILIAN had not made an appointment with the Chancellor through the telephone, either for an hour or place of meeting. He had been in no mood at the time for the cool mapping out of details; and later, when there had been plenty of leisure for reflection, he had let himself hope that the Chancellor would already be willing to qualify his rash accusations. If this were so, the old man would be as eager to avoid a visit to the hunting-lodge as he had been a few hours ago to propose it. Maximilian did not mean to let Von Markstein escape the obligation of this visit, but he would have triumphed in the Chancellor's desire to evade it, which would have meant much.

"If he still persists in his abominable idea that she has gone to the hunting-lodge," thought the Emperor (with that vagueness of expression which lovers of high or low degree use in designating the one woman in the world), "he will risk no chance of missing me, but will be waiting at the station. Should he, on the contrary, have had reason since our talk to doubt the accuracy of his own information, he will take advantage of the uncertainty I've left him in regarding my movements, to keep out of the way."

So arguing, Maximilian looked sharply from the window as his special train entered the Salzbruck station along the track that had been kept clear for its arrival. No other train was due from any direction at the moment, therefore few persons were on the platform, and a figure in a long gray coat, with its face shadowed by a slouch hat, was all the more conspicuous. Maximilian's heart sank. He believed in his love, but he would have preferred the Chancellor's absence.

"I hope that Your Majesty will forgive the liberty I have taken in being here, to place myself at your convenience and so avoid delay,"

were the old man's first words, as he took off his hat to the Emperor.

"I drove down from my house some time ago, expecting that you might arrive by special train; and I need hardly say that my carriage, which is waiting, is at your disposal for any use you may care to make of it."

"I wish to go instantly to the hunting-lodge near Bunden," said the Emperor, watching the other's face, and still hoping against hope for a visible sign of discomfiture. But he was not to be gratified.

"I was prepared for that wish, Your Majesty," promptly said the Chancellor. "The horses are fresh, and they will make the journey in an hour and a half."

"Very well, then, there is nothing that need delay us. You are ready to go with me, of course?" Another detective glance, destined again to pa.s.s unrewarded by revelations.

"I am ready, Your Majesty--as always, I trust, when I am needed."

It was on Maximilian's tongue to say that it would be well if his Chancellor's readiness confined itself entirely to such occasions; but he shut his lips upon the words and walked by the old man's side in frozen silence.

It was not yet eight o clock, but the month of October had just begun, and the sun having set an hour or more ago, the swiftly fading Rhaetian twilight had darkened into a starlit night. Though the day had been warm, there was now a crisp keenness in the air, and the Chancellor's coachman and groom had prepared themselves with high sable collars for their country drive.

The horses, which had been kept moving up and down the long straight avenue of the Bahnhofstra.s.se, were nervous and restive, and no sooner had the green-liveried footman shut the carriage door than they bounded off at a pace almost beyond control.

Both windows were closed, to keep out the chill, but Maximilian impatiently lowered the one nearest him, forgetting the Chancellor's tendency to rheumatism, and stared into the night. The railway station was on the outskirts of the town; and speedily pa.s.sing the few warehouses and factories in the neighbourhood, they struck into the open country. There was a pungent scent of dying leaves on the breeze that blew in through the open window, and Maximilian knew that never again could he inhale the melancholy fragrance of the falling year with out recalling this hour, so vivid with sensations.

He was desperately eager to reach the end of the journey, that the Chancellor might be confounded once for all; yet, as the horses hoofs rang tunefully along the hard roads, and landmark after landmark glided out of sight among tree-branches thickly laced with stars, he would have stayed the pa.s.sing moments if he could. He wished to know, yet he did not wish to know. He burned to ask questions, yet would have died rather than put them.

It was a relief when Von Markstein spoke at last; a relief that brought a p.r.i.c.k of resentment with it; for even the Chancellor had no right to break a silence that the Emperor kept.

"Your Majesty's anger is hard to bear. Yet I can bear it uncomplainingly, because I am confident that my reward is not far off.

I look for it no further in the future than to-night."

"And I think that you will get your reward!" retorted the Emperor sharply.

"Not only in your forgiveness, but your thanks."

"I will forgive you when you have found Miss de Courcy for me, and begged her pardon for your calumnies."

"I have already found her, Your Majesty, and am taking you to her now."

"You actually believe your own story, Von Markstein? You believe that this sweet and gracious lady is a fast actress, a friend of your notoriously gallant friend, and willing to compromise her good name by paying a night visit to his hunting-lodge? You really think that we shall see her there?"

"I shall see her, Your Majesty. And you will see her, if this madness you call love has not blinded the eyes of your body as well as of your mind. That she is there I know, for the Prince told me with his own lips that she was driving out to the lodge with him this afternoon."

"You mean that he told you his friend the actress was going. I'll stake my life he did not dare to say Miss de Courcy."

"He said Miss Brand, the actress, it is true. But when he called upon her at the Hohenburgerhof (where he and I had met to talk of a matter which can be no mystery to Your Majesty) he asked for Miss de Courcy.

And the message which came down was that Miss de Courcy would see him.

This left no doubt in my mind (however the matter may present itself to you) that she had remained in Salzbruck, after giving out that she was departing to-day, for the express purpose of a meeting with her old friend, the Prince. She probably hoped that, as she was supposed to be gone, her indiscretion might be hidden from Your Majesty and others."

"Pray spare me your deductions, Chancellor," said the Emperor curtly.

"I am with you in this expedition to prove you wrong, not right, and nothing that you can say will convince me that the Prince's friend and Miss de Courcy are one. If we find a woman at the hunting-lodge it will not be the lady we seek; and as you will presently be ready to eat the words you have spoken, the fewer such bitter pills you have to swallow, the better."

So snubbed by the young man whom he had held in his arms, an imperious as well as Imperial infant, the old statesman relapsed into silence.

But he had said that which had been in his mind to say, and he was satisfied to know that it was left to rankle. Meekness was not his _metier_, but he could play the part of the faithful retainer, humbly loyal through injustice and misunderstanding, when it was the one effective role; and he played it now to perfection. He sat with bowed head and stooping shoulders, suggesting the weakness of old age, his hands clasped on his knee; and from time to time he breathed a stifled sigh.

His silent pathos wrung no sign of relenting from Maximilian, however, and not a word was exchanged between the two men for nearly an hour, until they had driven under the dark arch of the first trees of the Niederwald. Then it was the Emperor who spoke.

"You have led me to suppose that our call at the hunting-lodge is to take its master by surprise. Is that supposition the correct one, Chancellor?"

Count von Markstein would greatly have preferred that this question should have remained in abeyance. He had intended to convey the impression credited to him by the Emperor, but he had not wished to clothe it in actual statement. The Prince understood that he was to be the leading actor in the "little comedy" to which he had merrily referred, and he would know how to feign the astonishment indispensable to success. It was to be hoped that he would have the skill to carry it out to the end, since the Chancellor was now called upon irrevocably to commit himself.

"Were our visit expected, we should not be likely to find the lady, Your Majesty. The Prince, who is on terms of confidence with me, did not hesitate to mention that he was to have a pretty actress as his guest; how could he dream that the event would be of importance to the Emperor of Rhaetia? But had he known that the entertainment he meant to offer her might be interrupted, naturally he would, out of consideration for the lady's feelings, have taken means to secure her against embarra.s.sment."

"This night's work will give him cause to pick a private quarrel with me, if he chooses," said the Emperor, satisfied at least of the Chancellor's integrity.

"I do not think that he will choose, Your Majesty. You are in a mood to be glad if he did, I fear. But, after all, I need not fear. You will always remember Rhaetia and put her interests before your own."

"You did not feel so confident of that a few hours ago, Chancellor."

"I was taken by surprise. But I knew well enough in my heart that when the test should come, Your Majesty's cool head would prevail over the hot impulses of youth. See, we are pa.s.sing through the village of Bunden, fast asleep already, every window dark. In another ten minutes we shall be at the lodge gates."

The Emperor laughed shortly and somewhat bitterly. "Add twice ten minutes to that, and we shall be out of the lodge gates again, with Chancellor von Markstein a sadder and a wiser man."

Meekness was once more the role for "Iron Heart," and lifting his hands, palm upward, in a gesture of generous indulgence, he denied himself the satisfaction of retort.

The hunting-lodge, now the property of the Chancellor's accommodating young friend, had until a year ago belonged to a Rhaetian semi-royal prince, who had been forced by lack of sympathy among his creditors to sell. The present owner was a keen sportsman, and, though he came seldom, had spent a good deal of money upon much needed repairing of the quaint old house in the woods. It was years since the Emperor had visited the place, and the very outlines of the low rambling structure looked strange to him, as in the distance they were silhouetted against a spangled sky. He was glad of this; for he had spent some happy days here as a boy, and he wished to separate from the past the impressions which to-night must engrave upon his mind.

Two tall chimneys stood up like the erected ears of some alert, crouching animal; the path to the lodge gleamed white and straight in the darkness as a parting in the rough black hair of a giant; the trees of the forest gossiped together in the wind. It seemed to Maximilian now that they were evil things who told lies, slandering his love, and he hated them, and their rustling; he hated the two yellow eyes of the animal with p.r.i.c.ked ears, which were only lighted windows; he hated the young Prince who had bought the right to bring scandal to this quiet place, and he would have hated the Chancellor, had not the old man limped as he stepped down from the carriage, showing how heavy was the burden of his years, as he had never shown it before.