Part 23 (1/2)
”No, not if you wish for it.”
Eugenie struggled a moment with herself; at last she said,
”You have refused your people's demands?”
”All that it was possible for me to grant, and all that the people themselves required, I have granted; but Hartmann's terms are so extreme, they will not bear discussion. They would, of necessity, lead to the complete destruction of all discipline, to a state of positive anarchy, and they are in themselves a downright insult. He would hardly have ventured to propose them, if he had not known all that is at stake for me in this struggle.”
”And what is there at stake?” asked Eugenie, listening with breathless attention. ”Your fortune?”
”More even, my existence as a mine-owner.”
”And you will not give way?”
”No.”
She looked up at her husband, at the man who, barely three months before, could not endure a ”scene” with her, because it affected his ”nerves,” and who now quietly faced a struggle on which his whole future depended. Was he really the same being? That ”No” of his had an iron clang about it; she felt that the most violent threats would extract from him no other answer.
”I fear Hartmann will go all lengths,” she returned. ”He hates you.”
Arthur smiled contemptuously.
”I know it, and the feeling is certainly mutual.”
Eugenie thought of the eyes which had flashed so wildly when she p.r.o.nounced her husband's name up there on the heights, and a sudden terror took possession of her.
”You must not under-estimate that man's hatred. He is terrible in his pa.s.sions as in his energy.”
Arthur looked her steadily in the face, frowning as he did so.
”Are you so well acquainted with him? You certainly always have had an admiration for this hero in a blouse. A cheap sort of energy, his, defiantly setting itself to work to bring about the impossible, and preferring to drag hundreds down into misfortune rather than listen to a word of reason. But even Hartmann may find a rampart against which his obstinate will may spend its strength in vain. From me, at least, he will obtain nothing, though I should have to fight on until I am completely ruined.”
He reined in his horse all at once, and Eugenie instantly did the same.
The path through the woods was here intersected by a bend in the high road, and there, drawn up just before them, they saw the very men they had wished to avoid. A troop of miners had come to a halt at that spot and appeared to be waiting for some one.
Arthur knitted his brows.
”It seems we are not to be spared a meeting.”
”Shall we turn back?” asked Eugenie in a low voice.
”It is too late, they have seen us already. We cannot avoid them now; to turn back would savour of flight. It is a pity we are on horseback, that will irritate them still more, but we must show no weakness; we must go on.”
”And yet you feared this encounter?”
Arthur looked at her astonished.
”I? It was only you who were not to meet them. It cannot be helped now; but, at all events, you are no longer alone. Keep Afra well in hand, and stay close by me. Perhaps there will be no conflict, after all.”
These words were exchanged quickly and almost in a whisper as they paused for one minute. Then they rode slowly forward and out into the high road, where their approach had evidently been remarked.