Part 10 (1/2)
”Yes,” said Wengenrode, ”and the Roman procurator, Pilate, who is a porter or a messenger and so drags various loads about, carried up my luggage to-day and dropped my dressing case containing a number of breakable jars and boxes. 'Stupid blockhead!' I exclaimed, angrily. He straightened himself and looked at me with an expression which actually embarra.s.sed me. 'My name is _Thomas Rendner_, sir! I beg your pardon for my awkwardness, and am ready to make your loss good, so far as my means shall allow.'”
”Now tell me, isn't that sheer hallucination of grandeur?”
Some of the gentlemen laughed, but Prince Emil and Hohenheim were silent.
”Where shall we go to-morrow evening in Munich to recompense ourselves for this boredom?” asked Cossigny.
”To the Casino, I think!” said the prince.
”Well, then we'll all meet there, shall we?”
The party a.s.sented.
”Provided that the countess has no commands for us,” observed St.
Genois.
”She will not have any,” said the prince, ”for either the Play will produce an absurd impression which is not to be expected, and then she will feel ashamed and unwilling to grant us our triumph because we predicted it, or her sentimental mood will draw from this farce a sweet poison of emotion, and in that case we shall be too frivolous for her!
This must first be allowed to exhale.”
”Very true,” Hohenheim a.s.sented. ”You are just the man to cope with this capricious beauty, Prince Emil. Adieu! May you prosper!”
The gentlemen raised their hats.
”Farewell!” said Cossigny, ”by the way, I'll make a suggestion. We shall best impress the countess while in this mood, by our generosity; let us heap coals of fire on her head by sending a telegram to the court-gardener to convert the whole palace into a floral temple to welcome her return. It will touch a mysterious chord of sympathy if she meets only these mute messengers of our adoration. When on entering she finds this surprise and remembers how basely she treated us this morning, her heart will be touched and she will invite us to dine the day after to-morrow.”
”A capital plan,” cried Wengenrode and St. Genois, gaily. ”Do your Highnesses agree?”
”Certainly,” replied Hohenheim, with formal courtesy, ”when the point in question is a matter of gallantry, a Hohenheim is never backward.”
”I beg to be allowed to contribute also, but _incognito_. She would regard such an attention from me as a piece of sentimentality, and it would produce just the contrary effect,” Prince Emil answered.
”As you please.”
”Let us go to the telegraph office!” cried Wengenrode, eagerly.
”Farewell, gentlemen.”
”_Au revoir_, Prince Emil! Are you going to return to the lionesses'
den?”
”Can you ask?” questioned Hohenheim with a significant smile.
”Then early to-morrow morning at the Play, and at night the Casino, don't forget!” Cossigny called back.
The gentlemen, laughing and chatting, strolled down the street to their lodgings. The prince watched them a moment, turned, and went back to the countess.
”I cannot really be vexed with her, if these a.s.sociates do not satisfy her,” he thought.
”Should I desire her to become my wife, if they did? Certainly not. Yet if women only would not rush from one extreme to another? Hohenheim is perfectly right, she ought not to stay here too long, she must go to-morrow.”