Part 19 (1/2)
”Pardon delay,” the Rhaetian Amba.s.sador to Great Britain began his message. ”Have been obliged to make inquiries. Lady de Courcy is the widow of Baron de Courcy, who died ten years ago, leaving one son and a daughter. The lady is not rich, and in her son's minority lets her town and country houses, living mostly abroad. She is at present in Calcutta, India, where her daughter, Miss Mary de Courcy, is engaged to marry a Judge Morley, a man of some distinction. Kindly let me hear if there are other particulars you desire to know, and I will endeavour to obtain them.--MIENIGEN.”
”Well!” the Emperor threw aside the telegram, and laughed. Rather a forced laugh, perhaps, but still it was a laugh. ”Is it possible that so wise a man of the world as yourself, Chancellor, dares to call two ladies adventuresses on such slight grounds as these; or have you more cards up your sleeve?”
Von Markstein breathed quickly. He had counted on the Emperor's former strict regard for Court etiquette, the well-known sternness of his principle; and he had not prepared himself for such an answer. But then, he had yet to make the acquaintance of Maximilian as a man in love.
He hesitated for a reply. In truth, he had founded his theory on this basis, and he still considered it amply sufficient to satisfy any one save a madman. But if Maximilian were mad, he must be treated accordingly; therefore the Chancellor condescended to ”bluff.”
”It is not yet time to play the trumps which I keep in my sleeve, Your Majesty,” he said, as firmly as if he had not been conscious of his sleeve's emptiness. ”But I am sure, when you have thought the matter over--perhaps deigned to talk it over with me--you will see that the cards I have laid before you are all-sufficing. The ladies styling themselves De Courcy have come to Rhaetia under false colours. They have either deceived Lady West, or they have forged the letters of introduction purporting to be from her.”
”Why didn't you telegraph Lady West, while your hand was in, my friend?” asked Maximilian, feigning indifference to the answer.
”I did, Your Majesty, since you ask the question. At least, not knowing the address which would find her soonest, I wired a friend of hers, an acquaintance of my own, begging him to speak with Lady West, not mentioning my name in the matter. But as yet I have received no response to that telegram.”
”Until you do, I should think that even an old cynic like yourself, Chancellor, might have given two defenseless, inoffensive ladies the benefit of the doubt.”
”Inoffensive, you call them?” protested ”Iron Heart” incredulously.
”Inoffensive, when they came to this country for the purpose of using the young woman's beauty to ensnare Your Majesty's affections, to entrap you into some sort of declaration? But, great heaven, it is true indeed that my brain feels the advance of years! I have forgotten to implore that Your Majesty will tell me whether you have mentioned the word _marriage_ to the lady? I pray that you have not so far compromised your self and Rhaetia.”
”I will answer that question by another. Do you believe that Miss de Courcy came to Rhaetia for the express purpose of 'entrapping me', as you call it?”
”In truth, I scarcely credit even _her_ ambition with as high a flight as Your Majesty's avowed intentions. I believe that she would have been satisfied with far less--_far less_.”
”In that case, you think she would have been overjoyed with an offer to become the morganatic wife of the Emperor?”
”Overjoyed is a mild word, Your Majesty. Overwhelmed might be nearer.”
”Yet I tell you that she refused me last night, and is leaving Rhaetia to-day rather than listen to further entreaties.”
Maximilian leaned forward to launch this thunderbolt, his brown hands on his knees, his eyes eager. The recollections, half-bitter, half-sweet, called up by his own words, caused Sylvia to appear in his imagination more beautiful, more completely desirable even than before.
He was delighted with the expression on Von Markstein's face, though it quickly faded. ”Now, what arguments have you left?” he broke out in the brief silence.
”All that I had before--more, indeed. For what Your Majesty has said only shows that the lady is more ambitious, more self-confident, therefore more dangerous, than I had supposed. She staked much upon the power of her charms; and she might have won, had you not an old servant who wouldn't be fooled by the enchantments of Helen herself.”
”She _has_ won,” said Maximilian. Then, hastily: ”G.o.d forgive me for chiming in with your humour, and speaking as if she had played a game.
That is far enough from my meaning. By simply being herself she has won me, such as I am; she has proved that, if she cares at all, it is for the man and not the Emperor, since she called an offer which most ambitious women would have welcomed, an insult. Yes, Chancellor, that was the word she used; and it was almost the last she said to me; which is the reason I am travelling to-day. And nothing that you have told me has any power to hold me back.”
”By heaven, Your Majesty, I believe you look upon yourself from the point of view you credit to this English girl! You forget the Emperor in the man.”
”I have thought well, and at last I see nothing in one which need interfere with the other.”
”Love indeed makes men blind, and I see it spares not the eyes of emperors.”
”I have given my word to bear with you and your tongue, Von Markstein.”
”And I know that you will keep it. I must speak; I speak for Rhaetia, and for your better self! Your Majesty, I understand that you are now following this lady with the purpose of informing her that she has triumphed that she is to be the Empress.”
”If she will have the Emperor for her husband.”