The Princess Virginia Part 8

"Pray, mein frau, let him carry our things indoors," Virginia was insisting, while the tall man stood among the three women, motionless, but apparently a prey to conflicting emotions. If the Grand d.u.c.h.ess had not been obsessed with a certain idea, which was growing in her mind, she must have seen that his dark face betrayed a mingling of amus.e.m.e.nt, impatience, annoyance, and boyish mischief. He looked like a man who had somehow stumbled into a false position from which it would be difficult to escape with dignity, yet which he half enjoyed.

Torn between a desire to laugh, and fly into a rage with the officious landlady, he frowned warningly at Frau Yorvan, smiled at the Princess, and divided his energies between quick, secret gestures intended for the eyes of the Rhaetian woman, and endeavors to unburden himself in his own time and way, of the load he carried.

With each instant the perturbation of the Grand d.u.c.h.ess grew. Why did the man not speak out what he had to say? Why did the landlady first strive to seize the things from his back, then suddenly shrink as if in fear, leaving the tall fellow to his own devices? Ah, but that was a terrible look he gave her at last--the poor, good woman! Perhaps he was a brigand! And the Grand d.u.c.h.ess remembered tales she had read--tales of fearful deeds, even in these modern days, done in wild, mountain fastnesses, and remote villages such as Alleheiligen. Not in Rhaetia, perhaps; but then, there was no reason why they should not happen in Rhaetia, at a place like this. And if there were not something evil, something to be dreaded about this big, dark-browed fellow, why had Frau Yorvan uttered that exclamation of frantic dismay at sight of him, and rushed like a madwoman out of the house?

It occurred to the Grand d.u.c.h.ess that the man must be some notorious desperado of the mountains, who had obtained her daughter's confidence, or got her and Miss Portman into his power. But, she remembered, fortunately some or all of the mysterious gentlemen stopping at the inn, had returned and were at this moment a.s.sembled in the room adjoining hers. The Grand d.u.c.h.ess resolved that, at the first sign of insolent behavior or threatening on the part of the luggage carrier, these n.o.blemen should be promptly summoned by her to the rescue of her daughter.

Her anxiety was even slightly allayed at this point in her reflections, by the thought (for she had not quite outgrown an innate love of romance) that the Emperor himself might go to Virginia's a.s.sistance. His friends were in the next room, having come down from the mountain about noon, and there seemed little doubt that he was among them. If he had not already looked out of his window, drawn by the landlady's excited voice, the Grand d.u.c.h.ess resolved that, in the circ.u.mstances, it was her part as a mother to make him look out. She had promised to help Virginia, and she would help her by promoting a romantic first encounter.

In a penetrating voice, which could not fail to reach the ears of the men next door, or the actors in the scene below, she adjured her daughter in English.

This language was the safest to employ, she decided hastily, because the brigand with the rucksacks would not understand, while the flower of Rhaetian chivalry in the adjoining room were doubtless acquainted with all modern languages.

"Helen!" she screamed, loyally remembering in her excitement, the part she was playing, "Helen, where did you come across that ferocious-looking ruffian? Can't you see he intends to steal your rucksacks, or--or blackmail you, or something? Is there no man-servant about the place whom the landlady can call to help her?"

All four of the actors on the little stage glanced up, aware for the first time of an audience; and had the Grand d.u.c.h.ess's eyes been younger, she might have been still further puzzled by the varying and vivid expressions of their faces. But she saw only that the dark-browed peasant man, who had glared so haughtily at poor Frau Yorvan, was throwing off his burden with haste and roughness.

"I do hope he hasn't already stolen anything of value," cried the Grand d.u.c.h.ess. "Better not let him go until you've looked into your rucksacks. Remember that silver drinking cup you _would_ take with you--"

She paused, not so much in deference to Virginia's quick reply, as in amazement at Frau Yorvan's renewed gesticulations. Was it possible that the woman understood more English than her guests supposed, and feared lest the brigand--perhaps equally well instructed--might seek immediate revenge? His bare knees alone were evidence against his character in the eyes of the Grand d.u.c.h.ess. They gave him a brazen, abandoned air; and a young man who cultivated so long a s.p.a.ce between stockings and trousers might be capable of any crime.

"Oh, Mother, you're very much mistaken," Virginia was protesting.

"This man is a great friend of mine, and has saved my life. You must thank him. If it were not for him, I might never have come back to you."

At last the meaning of her words penetrated to the intelligence of the Grand d.u.c.h.ess, through an armor of misapprehension.

"He saved your life?" she echoed. "Oh, then you have been in danger!

Heaven be thanked for your safety--and also that the man's not likely to know English, or I should never forgive myself for what I've said.

Here is my purse, dearest. Catch it as I throw, and give it to him just as it is. There are at least twenty pounds in it, and I only wish I could afford more. But what is the matter, my child? You look ready to faint."

As she began to speak, she s.n.a.t.c.hed from a desk at which she had been writing, a netted silver purse. But while she paused, waiting for Virginia to hold out her hands, the girl forbade the contemplated act of generosity with an imploring gesture.

"He will accept no reward for what he has done, except our thanks; and those I give him once again," the girl answered. She then turned to the chamois hunter, and made him a present of her hand, over which he bowed with the air of a courtier rather than the rough manner of a peasant. And the Grand d.u.c.h.ess still hoped that the Emperor might be at the window, as really it was a pretty picture, and, it seemed to her, presented a pleasing phase of Virginia's character.

She eagerly awaited her daughter's coming, and having lingered at the window to watch with impatience the rather ceremonious leave-taking, she hastened to the door of the improvised sitting-room to welcome the mountaineers, as they returned to tell their adventures.

"My darling, who do you think was listening and looking from the window next ours?" she breathlessly inquired, when she had embraced her newly-restored treasure--for the secret of the adjoining room was too good to keep until questions had been put. "Can't you guess? I'm surprised at that, since you were so sure last night of a certain person's presence not far away. Why, who but your Emperor himself!"

The Princess laughed happily, and kissed her mother's pink cheek.

"Then he must have an astral body," said she, "since one or the other has been with me all day; and it was to him--or his Doppelganger--that you offered your purse to make up for accusing him of stealing!"

The Grand d.u.c.h.ess sat down; not so much because she wished to a.s.sume a sitting position, as because she experienced a sudden, uncontrollable weakness of the knees. For a moment she was unable to speak, or even to speculate; but one vague thought did trail dimly across her brain.

"Heavens! what have I done to him? And maybe some day he will be my son-in-law."

Meanwhile, Frau Yorvan--a strangely subdued Frau Yorvan--had droopingly followed the chamois hunter into the inn.

"My dear old friend, you must learn not to lose that well-meaning head of yours," said he in the hall.

"Oh, but, your Majesty--"

"Now, now, must I remind you again that his Majesty is at Kronburg, or Petersbruck, or some other of his residences, when I am at Alleheiligen? This time I believe he's at the Baths of Melina. If you can't remember these things, I fear I shall be driven away from here, to look for chamois elsewhere than on the Schneehorn."

"Indeed, I will not be so stupid again, your--I mean, I will do my very best not to forget. But never before have I been so tried. To see your high-born, imperial shoulders loaded down as if--as if you had been a common Gepacktrager for tourists, instead of--"

"A chamois hunter. Don't distress yourself, good friend. I've had a day of excellent sport."

"For that I am thankful. But to see your--to see you coming back in such an unsuitable way, has given me a weakness of the heart. How can I order myself civilly to those ladies, who have--"

"Who have given peasant Leopold some hours of amus.e.m.e.nt. Be more civil than ever, for my sake. And by the way, can you tell me the names of the ladies? That one of them--a companion, I judge--is a Miss Manchester, I have heard in conversation; but the others--"

"They are mother and daughter--sir. The elder, who in her ignorance, cried out such treasonable abominations from the window (as I could tell even with the little English I have picked up) is Lady Mowbray. I have seen the name written down; and I know how to speak it because I have heard it p.r.o.nounced by the companion, the Mees Manchester. The younger--the beautiful one--is also a Mees--and the mother calls her Helene. They talk together in English, also in French, and though I have so few words of either language, I could tell that London was mentioned between them more than once, while I waited on the table.

Besides, it is painted in black letters on their traveling boxes."

"You did not expect their arrival?"

"Oh, no, sir. Had they written beforehand, at this season, when I generally expect to be honored by your presence, I should have answered that the house was full--or closed--or any excuse which occurred to me, to keep strangers away. But none have ever before arrived so late in the year, and I was taken all unawares when my son Alois drove them up last night. He did not know you had arrived, as the papers spoke so positively of your visit to the Baths; and I could not send travelers away; you have bidden me not to do so, once they are in the house. But these ladies are here but for a day or two more, on their way to Kronburg for a visit; and I thought--"

"You did quite right, Frau Yorvan. Has my messenger come up with letters?"

"Yes, your--yes, sir. Just now also a telegram was brought by another messenger, who came and left in a great hurry."

The chamois hunter shrugged his shoulders, and sighed an impatient sigh. "It's too much to expect that I should be left in peace for a single day, even here," he muttered, as he went toward the stairs.

To reach Frau Yorvan's best sitting-room (selfishly occupied, according to one opinion, by four men absent all day on a mountain), he was obliged to pa.s.s by a door through which issued unusual sounds.

So unusual were they, that the Emperor paused.

Some one was striking the preliminary chords of a volkslied on his favorite instrument, a Rhaetian variation of the zither. As he lingered, listening, a voice began to sing--ah, but a voice!

Softly seductive it was as the cooing of a dove in the spring, to its mate; pure as the purling of a brook among meadow flowers; rich as the deep notes of a nightingale in his pa.s.sion for the moon. And for the song, it was the heart-breaking cry of a young Rhaetian peasant who, lying near death in a strange land, longs for one ray of sunrise light on the bare mountain tops of the homeland, more earnestly than for his first sight of an unknown Heaven.

The man outside the door did not move until the voice was still. He knew well, though he could not see, who the singer had been. It was impossible for the plump lady at the window, or the thin lady with the gla.s.ses, to own a voice like that. It was the girl's. She only, of the trio, could so exhale her soul in the very perfume of sound. For to his fancy, it was like hearing the fragrance of a rose breathed aloud.

"I have heard an angel," he said to himself. But in reality he had heard Princess Virginia of Baumenburg-Drippe, showing off her very prettiest accomplishment, in the childish hope that the man she loved might hear.

Leopold of Rhaetia had heard many golden voices--golden in more senses of the word than one--but never before, it seemed to him, a voice which so stirred his spirit with pain that was bitter-sweet, pleasure as blinding as pain, and a vague yearning for something beautiful which he had never known.

If he had been asked what that something was, he could not, if he would, have told; for a man cannot explain that part of himself which he has never even tried to understand.

Before he had moved many paces from the door, the lovely voice, no longer plaintive, but swelling to brilliant triumph, broke into the national anthem of Rhaetia--warlike, inspiring as the Ma.r.s.eillaise, but wilder, calling her sons to face death singing, in the defense.

"She's an English girl, yet she sings our Rhaetian music as no Rhaetian woman I have ever heard, can sing it," he told himself, slowly pa.s.sing on to his own door. "She is a new type to me. I don't think there can be many like her. A pity that she is not a Princess, or else--that Leopold the Emperor and Leo the chamois hunter are not two men. Still, the chamois hunter of Rhaetia would be no match for Miss Mowbray of London, so the weights would balance in the scales as unevenly as now."

He gave a sigh, and a smile that lifted his eyebrows. Then he opened the door of his sitting-room, to forget among certain doc.u.ments which urged the importance of an immediate return to duty, the difference between Leopold and Leo, the difference between women and a Woman.

"Good-by to our mountains, to-morrow morning," he said to his three chosen companions. "Hey for work and Kronburg."

_She_ was going to Kronburg in a few days, according to Frau Yorvan.

But Kronburg was not Alleheiligen; and Leopold, the Emperor, was not, at his palace, in the way of meeting tourists--or even "explorers."

"She'll never know to whom she gave her ring," he thought with the dense innocence of a man who has studied all books save women's looks.