Beverly of Graustark Part 29

Yetive and her companions looked at one another with glances of Comprehension. He spoke in English now for the benefit of Beverly Calhoun, an interested spectator, who felt her heart leap suddenly and swiftly into violent insurrection.

"Nothing could be more ridiculous," said Yetive after a pause. "We do not know Frederic, and we are not harboring him."

"I am only saying what is believed to be true by Axphain, your highness. It is reported that he joined you in the mountains in June and since has held a position of trust in your army."

"Would you know Prince Frederic if you were to see him?" quietly asked Lorry.

"I have not seen him since he was a very small boy, and then but for a moment--on the day when he and his mother were driven through the streets on their way to exile."

"We have a new man in the Castle Guard and there is a mystery attached to him. Would you mind looking at him and telling us if he is what Frederic might be in his manhood?" Lorry put the question and everyone present drew a deep breath of interest.

Mizrox readily consented and Baldos, intercepted on his rounds, was led unsuspecting into an outer chamber. The duke, accompanied by Lorry and Baron Dangloss, entered the room. They were gone from the a.s.semblage but a few minutes, returning with smiles of uncertainty on their faces.

"It is impossible, your highness, for me to say whether or not it is Frederic," said the duke frankly. "He is what I imagine the pretender might be at his age, but it would be sheer folly for me to speculate. I do not know the man."

Beverly squeezed the Countess Dagmar's arm convulsively.

"Hurrah!" she whispered, in great relief. Dagmar looked at her in astonishment. She could not fathom the whimsical American.

"They have been keeping an incessant watch over the home of Frederic's cousin. He is to marry her when the time is propitious," volunteered the young duke. "She is the most beautiful girl in Axphain, and the family is one of the wealthiest. Her parents bitterly oppose the match. They were to have been secretly married some months ago, and there is a rumor to the effect that they did succeed in evading the vigilance of her people."

"You mean that they may be married?" asked Yetive, casting a quick glance at Beverly.

"It is not improbable, your highness. He is known to be a daring young fellow, and he has never failed in a siege against the heart of woman. Report has it that he is the most invincible Lothario that ever donned love's armor." Beverly was conscious of furtive glances in her direction, and a faint pink stole into her temples." Our fugitive princes are lucky in neither love nor war," went on the duke." Poor Dantan, who is hiding from Gabriel, is betrothed to the daughter of the present prime minister of Dawsbergen, the beautiful Iolanda, I have seen her. She is glorious, your highness."

"I, too, have seen her," said Yetive, more gravely than she thought. "The report of their betrothal is true, then?"

"His sudden overthrow prevented the nuptials which were to have taken place in a month had not Gabriel returned. Her father, the Duke of Matz, wisely accepted the inevitable and became prime minister to Gabriel. Iolanda, it is said, remains true to him and sends messages to him as he wanders through the mountains."

Beverly's mind instantly reverted to the confessions of Baldos. He had admitted the sending and receiving of messages through Franz. Try as she would, she could not drive the thought from her mind that he was Dantan and now came the distressing fear that his secret messages were words of love from Iolanda. The audience lasted until late in the night, but she was so occupied with her own thoughts that she knew of but little that transpired.

Of one thing she was sure. She could not go to sleep that night.

CHAPTER XXI

THE ROSE

The next morning Aunt f.a.n.n.y had a hard time of it. Her mistress was petulant; there was no suns.h.i.+ne in the bright August day as it appeared to her. Toward dawn, after she had counted many millions of black sheep jumping backward over a fence, she had fallen asleep. Aunt f.a.n.n.y obeyed her usual instructions on this luckless morning. It was Beverly's rule to be called every morning at seven o'clock. But how was her attendant to know that the graceful young creature who had kicked the counterpane to the foot of the bed and had mauled the pillow out of all shape, had slept for less than thirty minutes? How was she to know that the flushed face and frown were born in the course of a night of distressing perplexities? She knew only that the sleeping beauty who lay before her was the fairest creature in all the universe. For some minutes Aunt f.a.n.n.y stood off and admired the rich youthful glory of the sleeper, prophetically reluctant to disturb her happiness. Then she obeyed the impulse of duty and spoke the summoning words.

"Wha--what time is it?" demanded the newcomer from the land of Nod, stretching her fine young body with a splendid but discontented yawn.

"Seben, Miss Bev'ly; wha' time do yo' s'pose hit is? Hit's d' reg'lah time, o' co'se. Did yo' all have a nice sleep, honey?" and Aunt f.a.n.n.y went blissfully about the business of the hour.

"I didn't sleep a wink, confound it," grumbled Beverly, rubbing her eyes and turning on her back to glare up at the tapestry above the couch.

"Yo' wasn' winkin' any when Ah fust come into de room, lemme tell yo',"

cackled Aunt f.a.n.n.y with caustic freedom.

"See here, now, Aunt f.a.n.n.y, I'm not going to stand any lecture from you this morning. When a fellow hasn't slept a--"

"Who's a-lecturin' anybody, Ah'd lak to know? Ah'm jes' tellin' yo'

what yo' was a-doin' when Ah came into de room. Yo' was a-sleepin'

p'etty doggone tight, lemme tell yo'. Is yo' goin' out fo' yo' walk befo' b'eakfus, honey? 'Cause if yo' is, yo' all 'll be obleeged to climb out'n dat baid maghty quick-like. Yo' baf is ready, Miss Bev'ly."

Beverly splashed the water with unreasonable ferocity for a few minutes, trying to enjoy a diversion that had not failed her until this morning.

"Aunt f.a.n.n.y," she announced, after looking darkly through her window into the mountains above, "if you can't brush my hair--ouch!--any easier than this, I'll have someone else do it, that's all. You're a regular old bear."

"Po' lil' honey," was all the complacent "bear" said in reply, without altering her methods in the least.

"Well," said Beverly threateningly, with a shake of her head, "be careful, that's all. Have you heard the news?"

"Wha' news, Miss Bev'ly?"

"We're going back to Was.h.i.+n'ton."

"Thank de Lawd! When?"

"I don't know. I've just this instant made up my mind. I think we'll start--let's see: this is the sixth of August, isn't it? Well, look and see, if you don't know, stupid. The tenth? My goodness, where has the time gone, anyway? Well? we'll start sometime between the eleventh and the twelfth."

"Of dis monf, Miss Bev'ly?"

"No; September. I want you to look up a timetable for me to-day. We must see about the trains."

"Dey's on'y one leavin' heah daily, an' hit goes at six in de mo'nin'. One train a day! Ain' 'at scan'lous?"

"I'm sure, Aunt f.a.n.n.y, it is their business--not ours," said Beverly severely.

"P'raps dey mought be runnin' a excuhsion 'roun' 'baout Septembeh, Miss Bev'ly," speculated Aunt f.a.n.n.y consolingly. "Dey gen'ly has 'em in Septembeh."

"You old goose," cried Beverly, in spite of herself.

"Ain' yo' habin' er good time, honey?"

"No, I am not."

"Fo' de lan's sake, Ah wouldn' s'picioned hit fo' a minnit. Hit's de gayest place Ah mos' eveh saw--'cept Wash'ton an' Lex'ton an'

Vicksbu'g."

"Well, you don't know everything," said Beverly crossly. "I wish you'd take that red feather out of my hat--right away."

"Shall Ah frow hit away, Miss Bev'ly?"

"We--ll, no; you needn't do that," said Beverly, "Put it on my dressing-table. I'll attend to it."