The Colonel of the Red Huzzars Part 19

"Yes; I knew her there."

"Then you don't need to be warned."

I was silent.

"She has incapacitated half my military household with lacerated hearts or, indirectly, with punctured bodies; there is small difference."

"Better have only married officers," I suggested.

"Lord, sir, they are the first victims. Immunes are what I want."

"Like myself, for instance," said I.

He turned and put his hand on my shoulder. "I've had plenty like you, lad," he said kindly.

I laughed. "Then I may not hope for a place at Court?" I asked--and straightway wondered why I had asked it.

We had just come to a small door, before which paced a soldier of the Guard, and the King made no reply until we were in his private library and he had motioned me to a chair and an a.s.sortment of pipes and cigars.

"It was something of that sort that I want to discuss with you, if I may," he said.

"If you may?" I echoed.

He nodded. "You are a subject of the United States and a representative of its government at my Court."

"I had forgotten their significance," I admitted.

"But, with your permission, we can lay aside our officialism and hold a family conference."

The idea of my holding a family conference with the King of Valeria! I smiled involuntarily; and Frederick saw it.

"Don't you feel quite at home in the family, yet, my lad?" he asked.

"It is not Your Majesty's fault if I don't," said I; "but royalty is a bit new and strange to me."

He laughed heartily. "You are quite too modest, Armand. You spoke of a place at Court; would you accept one?"

"Surely, sire, you knew I was only jesting!" I exclaimed.

"Of course," said he; "but I'm not. I am entirely serious."

"I suppose," said I, "I'm as ambitious as most men."

"A little more so, if you're a good Dalberg," the King interjected.

"But am I a good Dalberg?"

He waved his hand toward a mirror in the wall. "Use your eyes," he said.

"I don't mean physically," I objected.

"I am very willing to trust Nature. She didn't give you old Henry's body and then mock it with inferior abilities."

I shook my head.

"Besides," he went on, "I admit I have had a report on you from my Amba.s.sador at Was.h.i.+ngton."

"I trust," said I, with a laugh, "it has left me a few shreds of repute."

"It didn't hurt you much, my lad."

That was the third time he had called me his "lad."

"Your Majesty then offers me a t.i.tle and a place at Court?"

The King smiled. "Yes," said he; "a high t.i.tle and a high place."

I pulled on my cigar and tried to think. But, on every cloud of smoke, I seemed to see the Princess; and all my brain knew was the single idea: "It will bring me within reach of her." I got up sharply and paced the room, until I threw off the foolish notion and could look at the matter in its true proportions.

"Tell me, Your Majesty," I said, "if I accept, will I be regarded as a legitimate descendant of the House of Dalberg or as of a morganatic marriage?"

The King nodded. "I had antic.i.p.ated that would be your first question.

You will be legitimate."

"But," said I, "if I understand the canons of royalty, my great-grandfather having married one not of royal rank his descendants are, as regards the House of Valeria, illegitimate."

"As a general proposition that is true; but it happens that your case is a peculiar exception."

"I am glad," said I; "otherwise we had reached an end of the matter."

"That, Major, is one of your American notions," said the King; "there is no disgrace in morganatic marriages."

"It's all a question of national taste," said I; "and you know, sire, '_de gustibus non_'----"

He drummed with his fingers a moment on the table.

"I have some unhandy views, possibly," said I.

"Oh, you will soon outgrow them," he returned; "only, it may be a trifle awkward if you parade them."

"But, maybe, I shall not care to outgrow them." I objected. "And, then, there is another notion--American, too, doubtless--which I fear will be a final bar."

"Nonsense, Armand," said the King, a bit sharply. "What other objection can even an American raise?"

"This, sire," said I: "When Hugo left Dornlitz his estates were forfeited, his t.i.tles were revoked and his name was stricken from the family roll. How can he now, after a century and a quarter, be rehabilitated?"

"The King, as Head of our House, has full power."