The Princess Virginia Part 25

"Ha, ha! You mean me to understand that there's no time to waste."

"Not a moment."

"What is the girl like?"

"Tall and slender, pink and white as a flower, dark-lashed and yellow-haired, like an Austrian beauty. Eyes gray or violet, it would be hard to say which, for a man of my years; but even I can a.s.sure you that when the lady looks down, then suddenly up again, under those dark lashes, it's something to quicken the pulse of any man under sixty."

"It would quicken mine only to hear your description, if you hadn't just put a maggot in my head that tickles me to laughter instead of raptures," said the Prince. "Tell me this; has this girl a tiny black mole just over the left eyebrow--very fetching;--and when she smiles, does her mouth point upward a bit on the right side, like a fairy sign-post showing the way to a small round scar, almost as good as a dimple?"

The Chancellor reflected for a few seconds, and then replied that, unless his eyesight and his memory had deceived him, both these marks were to be met with on Miss Mowbray's face. He did not add that he had seen her but once, and at the time had not taken interest enough to note details; for it was plain that the Prince had a theory as to the lady's real ident.i.ty; and to establish it as a fact might be valuable.

"Is it possible that you've already met this dangerous young person?"

he asked eagerly.

"Well, I begin to believe it may be so. I'll explain why later; thereby hangs a confession. At all events, a certain lady exactly answering the description you've given, is very likely in this neighborhood; I've heard that she was shortly due in Kronburg, and it was in my mind when deciding suddenly to spend a few days in the woods for the sake of seeing you, that I might see her also before I went home again. As a matter of fact, the lady and I have had a misunderstanding, at a rather unfortunate moment, as I'd just imprudently taken her into my confidence concerning--er--some family affairs. If it is she who is masquerading in Rhaetia as Miss Mowbray, and turning your Emperor's head, it may be that she's trying to revenge herself on me. She's pretty enough to beguile St. Anthony, let alone a St. Leopold; and she's clever enough to have thought out such a scheme. Our small quarrel happened about four weeks ago, and I've lost sight of the lady since; she disappeared, expecting probably to be followed; but she wasn't. The only question is, if she's playing Miss Mowbray, where did she get the mother? I've heard there _is_ a Mowbray-mother?"

"There's a faded Dresden china shepherdess that answers to the name,"

said the Chancellor, dryly. "But these mantelpiece ornaments are easily manufactured."

The Prince was amused. "No, she wouldn't stick at a mother, if she wanted one," he chuckled. "And while she was about it, she has apparently annexed a whole family tree. The black mole, and the scar-dimple, you're sure of them, Chancellor? Because, if you are--"

"Oh, I am practically certain!"

"Then, the more pieces in the puzzle which I fit together, the more likely does it seem that your Leopold's Miss Helen Mowbray and my Miss Jenny Brett are one and the same."

"Miss Jenny Brett?"

"Did you never hear the name?"

"If I have, I've forgotten it."

"Chancellor, you wouldn't if you were a few years younger. Jenny Brett is the prettiest if not the most talented singer ever sent out from Australia, the fas.h.i.+onable home of singers. She is billed to sing at the Court Theater of Kronburg in a fortnight, her first engagement in Rhaetia."

"You are right. It may well be that she's been having a game with us--a game that we can prevent now, thank Heaven, from ending in earnest."

"Oh, yes, we can prevent that."

"Your Royal Highness met the lady in your own country?"

"N-o. It was in Paris at first, but I'm afraid I induced her to accept an engagement at home. We were great friends for a while, and really she's a charming creature. I can't blame myself. Who would have guessed that she'd turn out so ambitious? By Jove, I can sympathize with Leopold. The girl tried to twist me round her finger, and I verily believe fancied at one time that I would offer her marriage."

"It must be the same girl. And the Emperor _has_ offered her marriage."

"What? Impossible! But--with the left hand, of course, though even that would be unheard of for a man in his--"

"I swear to your Royal Highness that if he isn't stopped, he will force her on the Rhaetian people as Empress."

"Gad! Little Jenny Brett! I didn't half appreciate her brilliant qualities."

"Yet I would wager that she appreciated yours."

The Prince shrugged his shoulders. "I believe she really cared something for me--a month ago."

"Then she still cares. You are not a man whom a woman can forget, though pique or ambition may lead her to try. I tell you, frankly, I believe that Providence sent your Royal Highness here at this moment, and my best hopes are now pinned on you. You--and no one as well as you--can save the Emperor for a n.o.bler fate. Even when I supposed you a stranger to this lady who calls herself Helen Mowbray, I thought that, if you would consent to meet her and exercise your fascinations, there might be hope of averting the danger from my master. Now, I hope everything. I beg, I entreat, that your Royal Highness will send up your name and ask the lady to see you without delay. She will certainly receive you; and when the Emperor learns that she has done so, it may go far to disillusion him, for--pardon me--your Royal Highness has a great reputation as a lady-killer. Still more valuable would it be, however--indeed, he would be cured of his infatuation forever, if--if--"

"If what?" inquired the young man, tired of the Chancellor's long windedness and beating about the bush.

"If you could persuade her to go out to your hunting lodge. Then Leopold and Rhaetia would be saved--by you. What could be better, what could be more suitable?"

"What indeed?" echoed the Prince. "For every one concerned,--except for Jenny Brett."

"Considering the havoc she has worked among us all, need she be considered--before the interests of a great country, and--perhaps I may hint--an innocent and lovely Royal lady, whom this girl is doing her best to humiliate?"

"I'm hanged if she need be so considered! Anyhow, I'll do what you ask. I'll send up my card, and then--we'll see what happens."

The Prince took from his pocket a small gold case, sparkling with jewels--a trifle which advertised itself as the gift of a woman. Out of this came a card, with a crown over the name in the fas.h.i.+on of his country and some others. An equerry, waiting in an adjoining room, was summoned; the card given to him; pa.s.sed on to a hotel servant; and then, for five minutes, ten minutes, the old man and the young one waited, talking of a subject very near to both their hearts.

At last, when they had no more to say, word came that Lady Mowbray and Miss Mowbray would see his Royal Highness.

"The value of a well regulated mother!" laughed the young man, who had not troubled to inquire for Lady Mowbray. "Well, whatever comes of this interview, Chancellor, I shall presently have something to tell you."

"The suspense will be hard to bear," said Count von Breitstein, "but I have perfect faith in you. We understand each other completely now; but--I'm growing old, and the past few days have tried me sorely.

Remember, I pray you, all that's at stake, and do not hesitate for an instant. Have no false scruple with such a person as this. The Emperor will soon arrive in Kronburg. He'll lose no time in trying to find the girl, and, once they've had another meeting, all our plans, all our precautions, may be in vain. He searches for her, to offer his crown."

The Prince listened, and did not smile as he went out.

He had bidden the Chancellor await his return in the salon of the Royal suite, which was always kept at his disposal, when he appeared in the neighborhood, as he often did since purchasing the hunting lodge a few miles out of Kronburg, in the forest.

Other foreign royalties, or lesser princes from the provinces, occasionally occupied the apartments, also; and this handsome Royal Highness of to-day was not the only one whom the Chancellor of Rhaetia had visited there. He knew by heart the rich purple hangings in the salon, with the double wolf-head of Rhaetia stamped in gold at regular intervals on the velvet; and he sickened of their splendor now, as the moments dragged, and he remained alone.

When half an hour had pa.s.sed, he could no longer sit still on the purple velvet sofa, but began walking up and down, his hands behind him, scowling at the full length, oil-painted portraits of Rhaetia's dead rulers; glaring a question into his own eyes in the long, gold framed mirrors,--a question he would have given his life to hear answered in the way he wished.

Three quarters of an hour had gone at last, and still the Chancellor paced the purple drawing-room, and still the Prince did not come back to tell the news.

Had the young man failed? Had that Siren up-stairs beguiled him, as she had beguiled one stronger and greater than he? Was it possible that she had lured the whole secret of their scheme from the Prince, and then induced him to leave the hotel while her arch enemy fumed in the salon, awaiting his return?

But no, there were quick footsteps outside the door; the handle was turned. At least, his Royal Highness was not a traitor.

As the Chancellor had confessed, he was growing old. He felt suddenly very weak; his lips fell apart, trembling; yet he would not utter the words that hung upon them.

Fortunately the Prince read the appeal in the glittering eyes, and did not wait to be questioned.

"Well, I've seen the lady and had a talk with her," he said, in a voice which was, the old man felt, somehow different in tone from what it had been an hour ago.

"And is she the person you have known?"

"Yes, she's a person I have known. It's--it's all right about that plan of yours, Chancellor. She's going with me to the lodge."