Part 22 (1/2)
”Sure,” calmly a.s.severated ”Iron Heart.”
”Then the more pieces in this little puzzle that I fit together, the more likely does it seem that your Miss de Courcy, who has been turning Rhaetia upside down--to say nothing of Rhaetia's Emperor--is neither more nor less than Miss Minnie Brand, one of the cleverest, and certainly one of the prettiest actresses England has owned for a century.”
”You met her in England?”
”No-o, not in England”; the Prince suddenly became noncommital. ”But we were great friends. After our quarrel she disappeared, disbanding her company, letting them go on while she stopped at a Rhaetian watering-place. Ha, ha! now I think of it, I should not be surprised if she had hoped to make of me a more egregious fool than she appears to have made of Maximilian. It is possible she fancied at one time that I might be a.s.s enough to offer her marriage.”
”The Emperor has offered her marriage.”
”_What_? With the left hand, of course--though even that would be unheard of.”
”I swear to you that if something can't be done to stop him, he will make her Empress of Rhaetia. He has told me so to-day with his own lips.”
”Gad! Little Minnie Brand! I didn't half appreciate her brilliant qualities.”
”Yet I wager, Prince, that she appreciated yours.”
Apollo shrugged his shoulders. ”I believe she liked me. Yes, I believe _that_ wasn't acting.”
”Is it long since you parted if I may ask as much?”
”Oh, yes, you may ask and be answered, Chancellor. It is only long enough for her to have said good-bye to the old love and taken comfortably up with the new.”
”But what if she still cared for the old--if the past could be revived? Prince, I tell you frankly, I now pin all my hopes on you.
Even when I thought only that if a meeting between you two could be arranged, your fascinations might produce a speedy effect--even then I hoped something. Now, I hope _everything_--if you will consent to see her. I beg you will do that--without delay. I beg that you will send up your card, and request the lady to receive you. That alone would be much to go upon with the Emperor, who is of a jealous disposition; but, if there could be more if you could persuade her to----”
”Persuade her to--what?” asked the Prince, when the old man paused for breath and inspiration.
”If she would go to your hunting-lodge--if the Emperor could know that she was there he would be cured, once for all. Rhaetia would be saved-- by you. And regarding the business that I think has brought you--what could be better--for every one concerned?”
”What, indeed?” echoed the Prince. ”For _every one_ concerned, except for Minnie Brand.”
”After what she has done, need she be considered--before the interests of Rhaetia, and another most innocent Royal lady, whom she is doing her best to humiliate and put to shame?”
”I am not sure that she need be so considered,” said the Prince. ”At all events--I will send up my card--to Miss de Courcy. As for the rest--it must arrange itself.”
He took from his pocket a little gold card-case, sparkling with jewels--a trifle which advertised itself as the gift of a woman. ”This shall go upstairs,” he said, selecting a bit of engraved pasteboard.
”And then--we shall see.”
For five minutes, for ten minutes, after the departure of the small, silent messenger, the two men waited, talking of a subject near to both their hearts. But at the end of that time word came that Lady and Miss de Courcy would see the Prince.
”The value of a well-regulated mother!” laughed the young man, who had not requested the pleasure of meeting Lady de Courcy. ”Well, whatever comes of this interview, I shall presently have something to tell you, Chancellor.”
”The suspense will be hard to bear,” said the old man. ”I am not as young as I was, and these past four days have sorely tried me.
Remember, I pray you, all that is at stake, and do not hesitate. Have no scruple with such a woman as this. The Emperor will shortly be returning. He will lose no time in seeing the girl, and--once they have had another meeting, all our precautions will be too late.”
The Prince did not smile as he went out.
He had bidden the Chancellor to await his return in the salon of the ”Royal suite,” which was usually put at his disposal when he was in Rhaetia, and drove in from the Niederwald to Salzbruck. Other Royalties from foreign countries, or from the provinces, occasionally occupied it also--hence its name; and Apollo was not the first Prince whom old Eberhard von Markstein had visited in the ”Royal suite” of the Hohenburgerhof. The Chancellor knew by heart the rich purple hangings in the salon, with the gold double wolf-head of Rhaetia embroidered on their folds; and he sickened of them now, as the moments dragged on and on, and he was left alone.