Affairs of State Part 33

Again a knock interrupted him.

"Come in!" he called, recklessly.

The door opened and Archibald Rushford entered. He closed the door carefully behind him and advanced to the middle of the room.

Vernon started forward.

"Why, how are you, Mr. Rushford?" he began, with outstretched hand. "I'm very glad to see you."

"Oh, you are?" inquired the American, keeping his own hands firmly behind his back. "I suppose _you're_ glad to see me, too?" he added, turning to the Prince.

"I know of no reason why I should avoid you," returned the Prince, proudly.

"Perhaps not," a.s.sented Rushford, drily. "The standards of gentlemanly conduct seem to be different in the Old World and in the New. I'm glad, however, that I've caught you two together. I suppose that little farce of pretended illness was played only for the benefit of outsiders!"

"I a.s.sure you, Mr. Rushford," began Vernon quickly, but the American stopped him with a gesture.

"I don't care to hear," he said. "I care nothing for your two-by-four conspiracies and intrigues. But, I repeat, I'm glad I caught both of you together. It enables me to tell, in the same breath, what I think of both of you, and I am very anxious to tell you, fully and completely, for I suppose you have been surrounded all your lives by toadies who were afraid to tell you the truth about yourselves, or who were so like you that they couldn't see the truth--products of the same code of morals--a code truly European! In a word, then, I think you are both blackguards--blackguards of the most nasty and contemptible kind--the kind that preys upon women! I may add that you have deeply shaken my faith in human nature, for, to look at you, one would mistake you for gentlemen!"

The words were uttered quietly, evenly, deliberately; each one given its full value. There was a certain dignity in Rushford's aspect which made interruption impossible; but neither man offered to interrupt. The Prince was biting his lips desperately; Vernon turned red and white and red again in evident amazement.

"And having said this," concluded the American, "as emphatically as possible, I will very gladly leave you to yourselves."

"Oh, no, you won't!" cried Vernon, fiercely, in a voice hoa.r.s.e with emotion. "I, at least, demand an explanation."

"An explanation?" and Rushford laughed, a little mocking laugh. "Can't your conscience give you an explanation? Or is it too deadened to do that?"

"No!" said Vernon, boldly. "My conscience gives me no explanation, which would in any degree warrant the words you have used to me, and which I am sure you will some day regret. It is true that my conduct here has not been wholly straightforward; but it is Prince Frederick I have wronged and not you in any degree. Your daughter--to whom, I presume, you referred--knew all--"

"All?" repeated Rushford, with irony.

"Perhaps not all, but I had intended waiting upon you this afternoon and explaining to you--"

"Oh! So you thought I was ent.i.tled to an explanation! Yes, my lord, it seems to me that your actions will require a great deal of explaining--more, certainly, than I have the patience to listen to. So I pray you will spare me. I don't know anything in G.o.d's wide world more contemptible than a married man who poses as single!"

"Married!" shrieked his lords.h.i.+p. "Poses! Oh!"

The door opened and Pelletan's head appeared.

"I knocked," he explained, obsequiously, "once--twice--and when none answered, Mees Rushford insiste'--"

"Miss Rushford!" cried Vernon.

"Yes, monsieur, Mees Rushford," and Pelletan stepped to one side, disclosing Sue.

CHAPTER XX

The Dowager's Bombsh.e.l.l

She came no farther than the threshold and looked only at her father, though her eyes were s.h.i.+ning with the consciousness of some one else's presence in the room--some one whom she had not in the least expected to find there.

"Come, dad," she said. "Don't waste your time here. They're not worth it," and she held out her hand to him.

But Vernon flung himself between them.

"He shall not go," he cried, "until he has heard me. It is all a mistake--I see now where this detestable adventure in diplomacy has led me. My dear sir, if I were what you think me, I should deserve every word you have uttered to me--and more. But I am not married--I have never been married--I had hoped--"

"Wait a minute," interrupted Rushford. "Don't go too fast. Come here, Susie, and help me to understand."

Could Sue, as she came forward, have seen the gaze which Prince Frederick bent upon her, her heart might have relented a little toward him; but she did not see--she had eyes only for her father.

"Now go ahead," said he, when he had his arm safely around her, "and be careful, sir," he added. "We want the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth."

"That is what you shall have," said Vernon, and pa.s.sed his hand across his forehead.

"It occurs to me," put in Collins, icily, "that the story is not wholly yours to tell."

"It isn't?" cried Vernon, turning upon him fiercely. "I suppose I'm to permit myself to remain in this d.a.m.nable position for the sake of a lot of third-rate diplomats in our foreign office! They can go hang, for all I care. I chuck the whole thing! Do you hear? Do you understand? The whole thing!"

Collins turned away with a shrug of despair. The situation had got beyond his control.

"It is an explanation which I owe to the Prince of Markeld as well as to yourself, Mr. Rushford," went on Vernon, more slowly, speaking calmly by a great effort, "and which I was just about to make to him when you came in. I am not Lord Vernon--I am merely his younger brother. I bear a certain resemblance to him, and a lot of paper-diplomats persuaded me to impersonate him here in order to leave him free to carry out the negotiations for the succession to Schloshold-Markheim without being embarra.s.sed by the representations of either side. I recall how half-heartedly he approved of the scheme, which had its origin in the fertile brain of Mr. Collins there. I see the reason now, though I didn't suspect it then. As to the succession, Monsieur le Prince, for all I know, the whole thing may by this time be settled. Collins could probably tell you, if he would--"

"It is not settled,'' muttered Collins.

"So you see," went on Vernon without heeding him, "I have done you an even greater wrong than you imagined."

"Yes," said the Prince, in a hoa.r.s.e voice, "you have."

"But settled or not," said the other, "I wash my hands of it! I've had enough!"

Rushford held out his hand with a quick gesture.

"I beg your pardon," he said, simply. "I see that I was not mistaken in my first estimate of you, after all--I am very glad."

"I was coming to you this afternoon," added the Englishman, taking the outstretched hand, eagerly, "to tell you that I am merely Viscount Cranford and not Lord Vernon--a very insignificant fellow, not a great one--and to ask for your daughter, Miss Nell. I ask you now. Though first let me make it clear to you that the t.i.tle is of little importance."

"The only t.i.tle we Americans care about," responded Rushford, slowly, "is that of gentleman. My daughter's husband need have no other--but he must have that. We don't give our daughters away, sir, as I've already explained to--"

Susie pinched his arm viciously in an agony of alarm. Then she pulled his head down to her, her eyes s.h.i.+ning, and whispered a quick sentence in his ear.

"Yes, that's it!" he nodded. "Nell is waiting for us--our apartment is just up the stair. You'd better go tell her the story, young man! Knock at the door, make her admit you, make her listen! Oh, a lover should know how--yes, I see you do! And G.o.d bless you!" he added, as Cranford wrung his hand, flung open the door, and disappeared along the hall.

"And we must go too, dad," said Sue, in a low voice. "At once. Come."