Part 25 (1/2)
The ”naturally” sounded very malicious, for Princess Sophie had known for months that the wife of the Prussian Amba.s.sador was only nineteen years old, but he smiled in the most amiable way as he replied: ”Your Highness is very gracious. I can only be grateful that my wife has had the good fortune to make a favorable impression upon you.”
”Oh, you cannot doubt it. The Duke and d.u.c.h.ess are quite of my opinion.
Frau von Wallmoden is really a beauty--Prince Adelsberg seems to think so, too. Perhaps you have not observed as yet how very much he admires your wife?”
”Yes, Your Highness, I have observed it.”
”Really? And what do you say to it?”
”I?” inquired Wallmoden with perfect tranquillity. ”It rests solely with my wife as to whether she will permit the admiration of the Prince. If she finds pleasure in it---- I do not give her any rules in this respect.”
”An enviable confidence which our young gentlemen ought to pattern after,” said the Princess, vexed that the arrow had missed its aim. ”It is surely very agreeable to a young wife if the husband is not jealous.
Ah, there is Frau von Wallmoden herself, with her cavalier, of course, at her side. My dear Baroness, we were just speaking of you.”
CHAPTER XXI.
Adelaide von Wallmoden, who had just entered in company with Prince Adelsberg, bowed her recognition of the Princess' notice.
She made, indeed, a brilliant picture to-night, for the splendid court toilet enhanced her beauty triumphantly. The costly brocade of the white dress, which fell to her feet in heavy folds, suited the slender figure admirably. The pearls encircling her throat and the diamonds which sparkled in her blond hair were perhaps the most costly of any worn to-night; but more sharply than ever appeared the cold and serious expression of the young wife. She did not in the least resemble others of her age who were also married, but who claimed the right of youth to dress in dainty laces and flowers. She possessed nothing of their brightness--the urbane amiability which was so fully brought to view in them. The severe, serious expression which was an inheritance from her father, and so indelibly stamped in her nature, betrayed itself in her character.
Egon kissed his exalted aunt's hand, and had been honored with a few gracious words, but from the first, the amiable attention of Her Highness was quite taken up by the young Baroness, who was immediately drawn into conversation.
”I was just expressing my pleasure to His Excellency that you find yourself so quickly at home in our court circle, dear Baroness. You enter these circles to-day for the first time, if I understand aright, and have lived hitherto in entirely different surroundings. You were born a----”
”Stahlberg, Your Highness,” was the calm rejoinder.
”Quite right. I remember the name, which has been spoken several times in my presence. It is honorably known in your native town, I presume.”
”Most gracious aunt, you must permit me to inform you better,” joined in Prince Adelsberg, who seldom permitted an opportunity of vexing his most gracious aunt to pa.s.s by. ”The factories of Stahlberg are world-renowned. They are as well known across the ocean as they are here. I had an opportunity to learn all about them when I was in Northern Germany several years ago, and I can a.s.sure you that those works those iron foundries and factories, with their colonies of officers and their army of workmen, can well vie with many a small princ.i.p.ality, whose sovereign, though, is not such an absolute ruler as was the father of Her Excellency.”
The Princess cast anything but a friendly glance at her nephew; his interference was not desired.
”Indeed! I had no idea of such magnificence,” she said in her most caustic tone. ”We may, perhaps, then greet His Excellency as such a ruler?”
”Only as administrator, Your Highness,” rejoined the Amba.s.sador. ”I am only the executor of my father-in-law's will, and guardian of my young brother-in-law, to whom the works will go when he attains his majority.”
”Ah, so? The son will probably know how to keep the inheritance. It is really astonis.h.i.+ng what the energy of a single man can do in these days, and it is so much more praiseworthy if he, like the father of our dear Baroness, has come from humble circles. At least I believe I have heard so, or am I mistaken?”
Princess Sophie knew very well that these remarks about the origin of his father-in-law were unpleasant to the Amba.s.sador, a man of old Prussian n.o.bility, and it caused her great satisfaction that the surrounding circle did not lose a word of the conversation, which was intended princ.i.p.ally to humble the lady of burgher descent.
But she was mistaken if she counted upon the Baroness falling into embarra.s.sment or evasion. Instead of that she drew herself up in all her pride.
”Your Highness is quite correctly informed. My father came to the Capital a poor boy without means. He had to struggle hard, and worked for years as a humble laborer, before he laid the foundation to his later enterprises.”
”How proudly Frau von Wallmoden says that!” cried the Princess, smiling. ”Oh, I love this filial attachment above everything. So Herr Stahlberg--or perhaps _von_ Stahlberg?--the large manufacturers often bear a t.i.tle----”
”My father did not bear it, Your Highness,” replied Adelaide, meeting the glance of the royal lady calmly and openly. ”A t.i.tle had indeed been offered him, but he refused it.”
The Amba.s.sador pressed his thin lips together. He could but find the remark of his wife very undiplomatic. The features of the Princess a.s.sumed an angry expression, and she returned with biting sarcasm: ”Well, then, it is a good thing that this aversion has not descended to the daughter. His Excellency will know how to value it. I beg your escort, Egon. I should like to look for my brother.”