Part 23 (1/2)
”If she makes the effort, we can afford to be audience and amuse ourselves with her acting, as the comedy plays itself out,” said the Prince.
”There is no doubt in my mind--whatever may be her conception of the part--as to the final tableau. And, after all, it is that alone with which you concern yourself--eh, Chancellor?”
”It is that alone,” echoed the old man. ”And now, lest by a hitch in the stage mechanism--since you choose that figure of speech--something should yet go wrong, I must make haste home, that I may be in time to receive the Emperor's communication from Wandeck.”
”If he should forget to send--_there_ would be rather a serious. .h.i.tch, would it not?”
”The Emperor has never, in my knowledge of him, forgotten to keep a promise, and I am certain he is not enough changed to do so even now.
_Au revoir_, Prince; till half-past nine.”
”Till half-past nine, when a warm welcome awaits you, from _one of the dramatis personae_. For the other--I cannot answer.”
Laughing, the two grasped hands on their understanding. The Chancellor went out to his carriage, which had been kept at the door and a few minutes later he was conversing with Maximilian through the telephone.
CHAPTER XV
THE OLDNESS OF THE CHANCELLOR
MAXIMILIAN had not made an appointment with the Chancellor through the telephone, either for an hour or place of meeting. He had been in no mood at the time for the cool mapping out of details; and later, when there had been plenty of leisure for reflection, he had let himself hope that the Chancellor would already be willing to qualify his rash accusations. If this were so, the old man would be as eager to avoid a visit to the hunting-lodge as he had been a few hours ago to propose it. Maximilian did not mean to let Von Markstein escape the obligation of this visit, but he would have triumphed in the Chancellor's desire to evade it, which would have meant much.
”If he still persists in his abominable idea that she has gone to the hunting-lodge,” thought the Emperor (with that vagueness of expression which lovers of high or low degree use in designating the one woman in the world), ”he will risk no chance of missing me, but will be waiting at the station. Should he, on the contrary, have had reason since our talk to doubt the accuracy of his own information, he will take advantage of the uncertainty I've left him in regarding my movements, to keep out of the way.”
So arguing, Maximilian looked sharply from the window as his special train entered the Salzbruck station along the track that had been kept clear for its arrival. No other train was due from any direction at the moment, therefore few persons were on the platform, and a figure in a long gray coat, with its face shadowed by a slouch hat, was all the more conspicuous. Maximilian's heart sank. He believed in his love, but he would have preferred the Chancellor's absence.
”I hope that Your Majesty will forgive the liberty I have taken in being here, to place myself at your convenience and so avoid delay,”
were the old man's first words, as he took off his hat to the Emperor.
”I drove down from my house some time ago, expecting that you might arrive by special train; and I need hardly say that my carriage, which is waiting, is at your disposal for any use you may care to make of it.”
”I wish to go instantly to the hunting-lodge near Bunden,” said the Emperor, watching the other's face, and still hoping against hope for a visible sign of discomfiture. But he was not to be gratified.
”I was prepared for that wish, Your Majesty,” promptly said the Chancellor. ”The horses are fresh, and they will make the journey in an hour and a half.”
”Very well, then, there is nothing that need delay us. You are ready to go with me, of course?” Another detective glance, destined again to pa.s.s unrewarded by revelations.
”I am ready, Your Majesty--as always, I trust, when I am needed.”
It was on Maximilian's tongue to say that it would be well if his Chancellor's readiness confined itself entirely to such occasions; but he shut his lips upon the words and walked by the old man's side in frozen silence.
It was not yet eight o clock, but the month of October had just begun, and the sun having set an hour or more ago, the swiftly fading Rhaetian twilight had darkened into a starlit night. Though the day had been warm, there was now a crisp keenness in the air, and the Chancellor's coachman and groom had prepared themselves with high sable collars for their country drive.
The horses, which had been kept moving up and down the long straight avenue of the Bahnhofstra.s.se, were nervous and restive, and no sooner had the green-liveried footman shut the carriage door than they bounded off at a pace almost beyond control.
Both windows were closed, to keep out the chill, but Maximilian impatiently lowered the one nearest him, forgetting the Chancellor's tendency to rheumatism, and stared into the night. The railway station was on the outskirts of the town; and speedily pa.s.sing the few warehouses and factories in the neighbourhood, they struck into the open country. There was a pungent scent of dying leaves on the breeze that blew in through the open window, and Maximilian knew that never again could he inhale the melancholy fragrance of the falling year with out recalling this hour, so vivid with sensations.
He was desperately eager to reach the end of the journey, that the Chancellor might be confounded once for all; yet, as the horses hoofs rang tunefully along the hard roads, and landmark after landmark glided out of sight among tree-branches thickly laced with stars, he would have stayed the pa.s.sing moments if he could. He wished to know, yet he did not wish to know. He burned to ask questions, yet would have died rather than put them.
It was a relief when Von Markstein spoke at last; a relief that brought a p.r.i.c.k of resentment with it; for even the Chancellor had no right to break a silence that the Emperor kept.
”Your Majesty's anger is hard to bear. Yet I can bear it uncomplainingly, because I am confident that my reward is not far off.
I look for it no further in the future than to-night.”