The Alpine Fay Part 11

"Perhaps some mistake of the servants----"

"No, it is a plot of the Baroness's," Frau von Lasberg interposed, indignantly. "But pray let us have no scene. When supper is over----"

"I shall take Molly directly home!" Ernsthausen concluded the sentence, opening his napkin with an energy that boded no good to his disobedient daughter.

The supper began and followed its course with all the splendour to be expected from an entertainment in the Nordheim mansion. The tables were almost overloaded with heavy silver and glittering gla.s.s, among which bloomed the rarest flowers. There was an endless variety of food, with the finest kinds of wine. The usual toasts to the betrothed couple were offered, the usual speeches made, and over it all brooded the weariness inseparable from such displays of princely wealth.

Nevertheless certain of the younger folk enjoyed themselves excessively; notably Baroness Molly, who, quite unaffected by her approaching doom, laughed and talked with her neighbour at table, while Gersdorf would have been no lover had he not forgotten all else and quaffed full draughts of the unexpected happiness of this interview.

Not less eager, if graver and of more significance, was the conversation carried on at the upper end of the table between Fraulein von Thurgau, who as the nearest relative of the family had her place opposite the betrothed couple, and Ernst Waltenberg, who was a distinguished guest. Hitherto he had seemed to take but little interest in the a.s.semblage and had been rather silent, but now he made it plain that where it pleased him to charm by his conversation he was fully able to do so.

He did indeed tell of distant lands and peoples, but he described them so vividly that his hearer seemed to see them. As he spoke of the charm of the southern seas, the splendour of the tropical landscape, Erna, listening with sparkling eyes, seemed carried away. Now and then Wolfgang, beside Alice on the opposite side of the table, scanned the pair with an oddly searching glance; his conversation with his betrothed did not seem to be of a particularly lively nature, master of the art though he were.

At last supper was over, and all returned to the reception-rooms. The universal mood seemed less constrained, laughter and talk were louder, and so general was the mingling of various groups that it was difficult to single out any particular individual, as Baron Ernsthausen found to his vexation, for his young daughter had disappeared for the time.

Ernst Waltenberg had conducted Erna to the conservatory, and was seated beside her, deep in the conversation begun at supper, when the betrothed couple entered. Wolfgang started as he perceived the pair, he bowed coldly to Waltenberg, who sprang up to offer his place to Fraulein Nordheim, and said, "Alice complains of weariness and thinks it will be quieter here. We are not intruding?"

"Upon whom?" Erna asked, quietly.

"Upon yourself and Herr Waltenberg. You were in such earnest conversation, and we should be very sorry----"

Instead of replying, Erna took her cousin's hand and drew her down beside her: "You are right, Alice, you need rest. It is a hard task even for those stronger than you to be the centre of such an entertainment."

"I only wanted to withdraw for a few moments," said Alice, who really did look fatigued. "But we seem to have disturbed you; Herr Waltenberg was in the midst of a most interesting description, which he broke off when we entered."

"I was telling of my last visit to India," Waltenberg explained, "and I took the opportunity to make a request of Baroness Thurgau, which I should like to make of you also, Fraulein Nordheim. In the course of my ten years of absence from Europe I have collected a quant.i.ty of foreign curiosities. They were all sent home, and form a veritable museum which I am just having arranged by an experienced hand. May I entreat the ladies to honour me with a visit,--with yourself, of course, Herr Elmhorst? I think I can show you much that will interest you."

"I fear my engagements will not allow me to accept your kind invitation," Elmhorst replied, with rather cool courtesy. "I must leave town in a couple of days."

"So shortly after your betrothal?"

"I must. In the present condition of our work I cannot allow myself a longer leave of absence."

"Do you agree to this, Fraulein Nordheim?" Waltenberg appealed to Alice. "I should think under present circ.u.mstances you would have the first claim."

"Duty has the first claim upon me, Herr Waltenberg,--in my opinion, at least."

"Must you take it so seriously,--even now?"

"Wolfgang's eyes flashed. He understood this 'even now?' and understood also the look which he encountered; he had seen the same expression on another face a few hours ago. He bit his lip; for the second time he was reminded that he was considered in society only as 'Alice Nordheim's future husband,'--one who could with her fortune in prospect purchase immunity from duties which he had undertaken to fulfil.

"To fulfil a duty is with me a point of honour," he replied, coldly.

"Yes, we Germans are fanatics for duty," Waltenberg said, negligently.

"I have lost somewhat of this national characteristic in foreign countries. Oh, Fraulein von Thurgau, not that disapproving look, I entreat. My unfortunate frankness will ruin me in your estimation, but remember I come from quite another world, and am absolutely uncivilized according to European ideas."

"You certainly seem so with respect to some of your views," Erna said, lightly, but withal with a shade of severity.

He smiled, and, leaning over the back of her chair, said, in a lower tone, "Yes, I need to be harmonized with mankind, and with our worthy Germans. Perhaps some one will have pity upon me and undertake the task. Do you think it would be worth the trouble?"

"Can you really endure this close, stifling temperature, Alice?"

Wolfgang asked, with ill-concealed impatience. "I fear it is worse for you than the heat of the rooms."

"But there is such a crowd of people there. Pray let us stay here, Wolfgang."

He bit his lip, but naturally yielded to a wish of his betrothed's so distinctly expressed.

"The air here is tropical," said Waltenberg.

"It is indeed. Oppressive, and debilitating for any one accustomed to breathe freely."

The words sounded almost rude, but he to whom they were addressed took no heed; he was still gazing at Erna as he went on: "These palms and orchids require it. Look, Fraulein von Thurgau, they enchant the eye even here in captivity. In the tropics, where they climb and twine in liberty, they are wonderful indeed."

"Yes, that world must be beautiful," Erna said, softly, while her eyes wandered dreamily over the foreign splendour of the blossoms gleaming among the green on every side and filling the conservatory with their sweet but enervating fragrance.

"Was your stay in the East a long one, Herr Waltenberg?" Alice asked, in her cool, uninterested way.

"I pa.s.sed some years there, but I am at home all over the world, and can even boast having penetrated far into Africa."

Wolfgang's attention was roused by these last words: "Probably as a member of some scientific expedition?" he observed.

"No, that would have had no charm for me. I detest nothing so much as constraint, and it is impossible in such expeditions to preserve one's personal freedom. One is bound by the rules of the expedition, by the wishes of one's companions, by all sorts of things, and I am wont to follow my own will only."

"Ah, indeed?" A half-contemptuous smile played about Wolfgang's lips.

"I beg pardon; I really thought you had gone to Africa as a scientific pioneer."

"Good heavens, how in earnest you are about everything, Herr Elmhorst!"

Waltenberg said, with a scarcely perceptible sneer. "Must life perforce be labour? I never coveted fame as an explorer; I have enjoyed the freedom and beauty of the world, and have renewed my youth and strength in quaffing long draughts of such enjoyment. To put it to positive use would destroy its romance for me."

Elmhorst shrugged his shoulders, and remarked, with apparent indifference, in which there was nevertheless a spice of insolence, "Certainly a most convenient way of arranging one's existence. And yet hardly to my taste, and quite impossible for most people. So to live one should be born to great wealth."

"No, not of necessity," Waltenberg retorted, in the same tone. "Some lucky chance may endow one with wealth."

Wolfgang looked annoyed, and he was evidently about to make a sharp reply, when Erna, perceiving this, hastened to give the conversation another turn.

"I fear my uncle must resign all hope of making you at home among us,"

said she. "You are so entirely under the spell of your tropical world, that everything here will seem petty and meagre to you. I hardly think that even our mountains could move you to admiration, but there you will find me a determined antagonist."

Waltenberg turned towards her,--perhaps he saw in her face, or was conscious himself, that he had gone too far. "You do me injustice, Fraulein Thurgau," he replied. "I have never forgotten the Alpine world of my native country,--its lofty summits, its deep-blue lakes, and the lovely creations of its legends by which it is peopled,--creatures"--his voice sounded veiled--"compounded as it were of air and Alpine snow, with the white fairy-like flowers of its waters crowning their fair hair."

The compliment was too bold, but the manner in which it was uttered took from it all presumption, as the speaker's eyes rested in admiration upon the beautiful girl before him in her white, misty ball-dress.

"Alice, are you rested?" Wolfgang asked, aloud. "We really ought not to remain away from the other room so long. Let us go back."

His words sounded almost like a command. Alice arose, put her hand within his arm, and they left the conservatory together.

"Herr Elmhorst seems to have a decided predilection for command,"

Waltenberg said, ironically, looking after them. "His tone was decidedly that of the future lord and master, and upon the very day of his betrothal. Fraulein Nordheim's choice seems surprising to me in more than one sense."