The Princess Virginia Part 27

"Then, you actually believe in your own story? You believe that this sweet and beautiful young girl is a fast actress, a schemer, a friend of your notoriously gallant friend, and willing to risk her reputation by paying a late visit, unchaperoned, to him at his hunting lodge in the woods! You are after all a very poor judge of character, if you dream that we shall see her there."

"I shall see her, your Majesty. And you will see her, unless the madness you call love has blinded the eyes of your body as well as the eyes of your mind. That she is now at the lodge I know, for the Prince a.s.sured me with his own lips that she had promised to motor out alone with him, and dine."

"You mean, he told you that his friend the actress had promised. I'll stake my life, even he didn't dare to say Miss Mowbray."

"He said Miss Brett, the actress, it's true. But when he called upon her at her hotel (where he and I met to discuss a matter which is no secret to your Majesty), he asked for Miss Mowbray. And the message that came down, I heard. It was that Miss Mowbray would be delighted to see his Royal Highness. This left no doubt in my mind that, after giving out that she would leave to-day, the lady had remained in Kronburg for the express purpose of meeting her dear friend the Prince, the handsomest and best dressed young man in Europe--after your Majesty, of course. And it was quite natural for her to hope that, as she was supposed to be gone, and you were following her, this evening's escapade would never be discovered."

"Please spare me your deductions, Chancellor," said the Emperor, curtly, "and pray understand now, if you have not understood before, that I am with you in this expedition not to prove you right, but wrong; and nothing you can say will convince me that the Prince's actress and Miss Mowbray are one. If we find a woman at the hunting lodge, it will not be the lady we seek--unless she has been kidnapped; and as you will presently be obliged to eat every word you've spoken, the fewer such bitter pills you provide for yourself to swallow, the better."

Thus snubbed by the young man whom he had held in his arms, an imperious as well as an Imperial infant, the old statesman sought sanctuary in silence. But he had said that which had been in his mind to say, and he was satisfied. Meekness was not his _metier_, yet he could play the part of the faithful servant, humbly loyal through injustice and misunderstanding; and he played it now, because he knew it to be the one effective role. He sat beside the Emperor with bowed head, and stooping shoulders which suggested the weakness of old age, his hands clasped before him; and from time to time he sighed patiently.

As they glided under the dark arch of the Buchenwald, Leopold spoke again.

"You have led me to suppose that our call at the hunting lodge will be a surprise visit to the Prince. That is the case, isn't it?"

Count von Breitstein would have preferred that the question had not been asked. He had intended to convey the impression which the Emperor had received, but he had not clothed it in actual statement. Luckily the Prince was as clever as he was good looking, and he could be trusted as an actor, otherwise the old man would have been still more reluctant to commit himself.

"Were our visit expected, we should not be likely to find the lady,"

said he. "The Prince and I are on such friendly terms, your Majesty, that he didn't mind confessing he was to have a pretty actress as his guest. He also answered a few questions I asked concerning her, freely and frankly, for to do so he had to tell me only what the world knows.

How could he dream that the flirtations or the visits of a Miss Jenny Brett could be of the slightest importance to the Emperor of Rhaetia?

Had he guessed, however, that the entertainment he meant to offer her might be interrupted, naturally he would have taken some means to protect her from annoyance."

"This night's work will give him cause to pick a private quarrel with me, if he likes," said the Emperor, convinced of the Chancellor's good faith.

"I don't think he will choose, your Majesty. You are in a mood to be glad if he did, I fear. But no; I need _not_ fear. You will always remember Rhaetia, and put her interests before your own wishes."

"You weren't as confident of that a few hours ago."

"Even then I knew that, when the real test should be applied, your Majesty's cool head would triumph over the hot impulse of youth. But see, we're pa.s.sing through the village of Inseleden, fast asleep already; every window dark. In six or seven minutes at this speed, we shall be at the lodge."

The Emperor laughed shortly. "Add another seven minutes to your first seven, and we shall be out of the lodge again, with Chancellor von Breitstein a sadder and a wiser man than he went in."

Meekness was once more the part for the old man to play, and raising his hands, palm upwards, in a gesture of generous indulgence for his young sovereign, he denied himself the pleasure of retort.

The hunting lodge in the wood, now the property of the Chancellor's accommodating young friend, had until recently belonged to a Rhaetian semi-Royal Prince, who had been compelled by lack of sympathy among his creditors to sell something, and had promptly sold the thing he cared for least. The present owner was a keen sportsman, and though he came seldom to the place, had spent a good deal of money in repairing the quaint, rustic house.

Years had pa.s.sed since the Emperor had done more than pa.s.s the lodge gates; and now the outlines of the low rambling structure looked strange to him, silhouetted against a spangled sky. He was glad of this, for he had spent some joyous days here as a boy, and he wished to separate the old impressions and the new.

Two tall chimneys stood up like the p.r.i.c.ked 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 whispered gossip to each other in the wind, and it seemed to Leopold that they were evil things telling lies and slandering his love. He hated them, and their rustling, which once he had loved. He hated the yellow eyes of the animal with the p.r.i.c.ked ears, glittering eyes which were lighted windows; he hated the young Prince who owned the place; and he would have hated the Chancellor more than all, had not the old man limped as he walked up the path, showing how heavy was the burden of his years, as he had never shown it to his Emperor before.

The path led to a hooded entrance, and ascending the two stone steps, the Chancellor lifted the mailed glove which did duty as a knocker.

Twice he brought it down on the oak panel underneath, and the sound of metal smiting against wood went echoing through the house, with an effect of emptiness and desolation.

n.o.body came to answer the summons, and Leopold smiled in the darkness.

He thought it likely that even the Prince was not at home. A practical joke had been played on the Chancellor!

Again the mailed fist struck the panel; an echo alone replied. Count von Breitstein began to be alarmed for the success of his plan. He thanked the night which hid from the keen eyes of the Emperor--cynical now, no doubt--the telltale vein beating hard in his forehead.

"Don't you think, Chancellor, that after all, you'd better try and take me to some more probable, as well as more suitable, place to look for Miss Mowbray?" he suggested, with a drawl intended to be as aggravating as it actually was. "There doesn't appear to be any one about. Even the care-takers are out courting, perhaps."

"But listen, your Majesty," said von Breitstein, when he knocked again.

Leopold did listen, and heard the ring of a heel on a floor of stone or marble.

CHAPTER XVIII

NOT AT HOME

It was a jager clad in green who opened the door of the hunting lodge, and gazed, apparently without recognition, at the two men standing in the dark embrasure of the porch.

"We wish to see his Royal Highness, your master," said the Chancellor, taking the initiative, as he knew the Emperor would wish him to do.

"His Royal Highness is not at home, sir," replied the jager.

Leopold's eyes lightened as he threw a glance of sarcastic meaning at his companion. But Iron Heart was undaunted. He knew very well now, that this was only a prelude to the drama which would follow; and though he had suffered a sharp pang of anxiety at first, he saw that his Royal friend was playing with commendable realism. Naturally, when beautiful young actresses ventured into the forest unchaperoned, to dine with fascinating princes, the least that such favored gentlemen could do was to be "not at home" to an intrusive public.

"You are mistaken," insisted the Chancellor, "his Royal Highness is at home, and will receive us. It will be better for you to admit us without further delay."

Under the domination of those eyes which could quell a turbulent Reichstag, the jager weakened, as his master had doubtless expected him to do after the first resistance.

"It may be I have made a mistake, sir," he stammered, "though I do not think so. If you will have the kindness to walk in and wait for a few minutes until I can inquire whether his Royal Highness has come home, or will come home--"

"That is not necessary," said the Chancellor. "His Royal Highness dines here this evening. We will go with you to the door of the dining-room, which you will open for us, and announce that two gentlemen wish to see him."

[Ill.u.s.tration: _At sight of her the Emperor stopped on the threshold_]

With this, all uncertainty in the mind of the jager was swept away.

He knew his duty and determined to stand by it; and the Chancellor saw that, if the master had given instructions meaning them to be over-ridden, at least the servant was sincere. He put himself in the doorway, and looked an obstacle difficult to dislodge.

"That is impossible, sir!" he exclaimed. "I have had my orders, which are that his Royal Highness is not at home to-night, and until I know whether or not these orders are to stand, n.o.body, not if it were the Emperor, should force his way."

"Fool, those orders are not for us; and it is the Emperor who will go in." With a step aside, the Chancellor let the light from the hanging lamp in the hall s.h.i.+ne full upon Leopold's face, hitherto masked in shadow.

His boast forgotten, the jager uttered a cry of dismay, and with a sudden failing of the knees, he moved, and left the doorway free.

"Your Majesty!" he faltered. "I did not see--I could not know. Most humbly I beg your Majesty's gracious pardon. If your Majesty will but hold me blameless with my master--"

"Never mind yourself, and never mind your master," broke in the Chancellor. "Open that door at the end of the hall, and announce the Emperor and Count von Breitstein."

The unfortunate jager, approaching a state of collapse, obeyed. The door of the dining-room, which Leopold knew of old, was thrown open, and a quavering voice heralded "His Imperial Majesty the Emperor, and the Herr Chancellor Count von Breitstein."

The scene disclosed was as unreal to Leopold's eyes as a painted picture; the walls of Pompeian red; the gold candelabra; the polished floor, spread with the glimmering fur of Polar bears; and in the center a flower-decked table lit with pink-shaded lights, and sparkling with gold and crystal; springing up from a chair which faced the door, a young man in evening dress; sitting motionless, her back half turned, a slender girl in bridal white.

At sight of her the Emperor stopped on the threshold. All the blood in his body seemed rus.h.i.+ng to his head, then surging back upon his heart.