Villa Eden Part 143

He obeyed, and was welcomed by their royal Highnesses in a very cordial manner.

The Prince went towards the house, where the Professorin was standing on the steps with Eric; he went up to her with quick step, holding out both hands, and saying how glad he was to see her again; then, pointing to the miniature, he added that he cherished a most grateful remembrance of its subject, and wore his image not on but in his breast. Eric seemed to be hardly noticed, till a glance from his mother said, "Speak to my son," and the Prince turned to him with the words:--

"I hope, dear Dournay, that you have a better pupil than your excellent father had in me."

Eric found nothing to say in reply, but bowed in silence. Pranken approached, and asked:--

"Will your Highness see the Park and the Victoria Regia in bloom first, or the house?"

"Ask the Princess," was the answer.

Pranken moved with great deference towards the other group, catching Manna's bright glance, which followed him everywhere. Where was Eric now? There stood the poor fellow, and it was laughable to think of his daring to aspire to an equality with a Pranken.

The Princess said that, after her drive, she would prefer to go into the house first.

They repaired to the balcony room, where a breakfast stood ready, and Sonnenkamp had the audacity to beg their Highnesses to accept with favor such a simple and extempore repast as a commoner could offer them.

Frau Ceres was favored with a seat at the Prince's right hand, and the Professorin was seated at his left; the Princess sat between Sonnenkamp and Roland.

Eric was fortunate enough to find, among the gentlemen in attendance, a former comrade to converse with.

"You must enter the military school soon," said the Prince, addressing Roland.

Sonnenkamp looked fixedly at him; the Prince knew very well when Roland was to enter, and every moment Sonnenkamp expected to see a sign given to one of the chamberlains to hand him his patent of n.o.bility, but it did not come. The Prince talked very earnestly with the Professorin, expressing his regret that a lady of such rare spiritual and mental endowments should have withdrawn from Court.

They soon rose from the table, and Sonnenkamp was made happy by the Prince's praise of his green-house and park, and his skilful fruit culture. Suddenly, in the orchard, the Prince asked the Professorin:--

"Where is your sister-in-law, the beautiful Claudine?"

"She is close by; she lives with me in the house in which Herr Sonnenkamp has established us."

"We will call upon her," said the Prince, abruptly; and they went through the new gate, across the meadows, to the green cottage.

The Aunt was very much surprised, but retained her quiet self-possession. The Prince told her that he could never think of harp-playing without at the same time thinking of Fraulein Claudine; one of the pleasantest recollections of his youth was of seeing and hearing her, as she sat with her long curls, on a tabouret in his mother's room; it was the prettiest bit of romance among his childish memories. Then again he expressed his grat.i.tude to the sister of his teacher, and extolled Herr Sonnenkamp's good fortune in having two such n.o.ble ladies as neighbors.

The Prince sincerely desired to make people happy, and he believed that he could do so with his porcelain flowers of speech; he was perfectly convinced that from this day forth Aunt Claudine would feel an unexampled satisfaction and happiness.

He remained a long time at the cottage, and gave orders that the carriages should follow him, that they might start from there on their return.

Eric, who had not been asked to join the party, remained behind at the villa, and talked with a tall coal-black negro, named Adams.

The negro, who wore a fantastic livery, soon became confidential, and said that he had been a member of a circus company, and was much applauded for his bold leaps, and his extraordinary strength; the brother of the Prince, when travelling in America, had bought his freedom, and he was now the Prince's favorite footman. His only trouble was that his wife, a white woman who had loved him dearly, and his child were dead, and he should never get another wife.

Eric had never before spoken to a man who had been a slave, and he could not help saying how much it moved him to do so.

While Eric was talking with the negro, he little thought that he was being talked of in the green cottage; his aunt resolutely turned the conversation upon him, and told the Prince what a man he had become. As the guests were about to enter their carriage, the Prince said, in quite a loud voice, to the Professorin:--

"Where is your son? Tell him that I should be very glad to prove to him how well I remember our boyish companionship."

The Princess' party drove off. The tall negro, who was sitting behind the carriage, gazed back for a long time. Sonnenkamp was much out of temper, and said to Pranken that this visit from the Prince had taken an incomprehensible turn, which he could not understand; he was unused to such things. It was clear that it had left him in most decided ill-humor.

When they returned to the villa. Manna went to Eric and said,--

"The Prince left a special message for you with your mother, and you are to remember that you were his comrade in boyhood."

Eric answered with frank cordiality:--

"The only gratifying circ.u.mstance about the Prince's gracious message, Fraulein Manna, is, that you bring it to me."

All looked surprised at this friendly dialogue between Eric and Manna.

Pranken ground his teeth, and clenched his fists at the ready audacity of the tutor.

"Where have you been?" asked Sonnenkamp, in a tone of reproof.

"I have been talking with the Prince's servant."

Sonnenkamp gave him a peculiar look, and then went to his green-house.

Pranken announced that he must now take his departure; he evidently expected Manna to raise some opposition, but she said nothing. So he rode off, leaving a strange feeling of disturbance behind him at the villa.

CHAPTER II.

DEMONSTRATION OF RESPECT FROM ABOVE.

A flash of lightning in the night-sky makes us fully conscious of the darkness, and our eyes are blinded. So it was after the departure of the Prince and Princess; every one sought to avoid the eye of another, every one went his own way, but no one spoke out his vexation and disappointment more frankly than the valet Joseph, and the steward agreed with him; the latter could not say much, because his mouth was full of the delicacies which had been removed from the table, but he nodded silently, and became very red in the face. Joseph said:--

"Not to leave a single gratuity behind them! What is there left of the whole show? Nothing; and at Court there isn't a table better laid and served, or more handsomely provided. They ought to be ashamed of themselves! Not to leave a single penny for the servants!"

Such was the fact.

No one, except Aunt Claudine, of whom n.o.body had thought, could find any good reason for satisfaction.

Sonnenkamp pondered and speculated how he could have brought about the change in the Prince's gracious mood. His inmost soul rebelled against being so dependent on the whim or the glance of another--he, the man who had ruled so absolutely over all that came in his way. He tormented himself till his head burned, to think over the whole course of the visit, and at last he thought he had found out the trouble; it was only a hitch at a glove which had shown it, but that was doubtless the sign of annoyance. He had told the Prince how delighted he should be to drink new health from the same spring as his gracious highness, and, when the Prince looked at him inquiringly, he had added that he also was going to Carlsbad, where he should have the happiness of beholding his Prince's face every day. Yes, that was it; the Prince had cast a hasty glance of astonishment upon him, and given his glove a twitch.

Sonnenkamp acknowledged to himself that he had made a decided blunder in not using more reserve; for nothing of the Prince's journey to the Baths was yet officially announced, and his mentioning it had been premature, and showed some private source of information. He was more vexed at the caution and self-restraint that one was compelled to observe, than at his own want of tact. Could not the Prince have taken it pleasantly? Had not a good, and, as he himself thought, a most graceful turn been given to his allusion?

The thoughts of the self-tormentor went further, and new tokens appeared. Had not the Prince said to Aunt Claudine:--

"Everything seems so thoroughly pleasant here; here I find nothing disturbed from its usual course."

The Prince was evidently offended that any secret preparations had been made for his reception; it probably seemed to him that he was surrounded by spies.

And now Sonnenkamp's wrath broke out anew, not against himself, but against the Prince, who ought to remember how long he had lived in a foreign land; and the Professorin ought to have managed matters better, for she had been a lady-in-waiting at Court; and Pranken ought to have managed better, too, for was he not a chamberlain?