Part 28 (1/2)
”Herr Rojanow--I----” She was about to utter a refusal, but he interrupted her, and continued in low, but pa.s.sionate, tones:
”What is a single flower to you, broken carelessly, and which you will allow to fade as carelessly? But to me leave me this token, gracious lady; I--I beg for it.”
He stood close beside her. The charm which he, as a boy, had unconsciously exerted when he made people ”defenseless” with his coaxing, he, as a man, recognized as a power which never failed, and which he knew how to use. His voice bore again that soft, suppressed tone which charmed the ear like music; and his eyes--those dark, mysterious eyes--were fixed upon the girl before him with a half gloomy, half beseeching expression.
The paleness of her face had deepened, but she did not answer.
”I beg of you,” he repeated, more lowly, more beseechingly, as he pressed the glowing flower to his lips; but the very gesture broke the spell. Adelaide suddenly drew herself up.
”I must ask you, Herr Rojanow, to return the flower to me. I intended it for my husband.”
”Ah, so? I beg your pardon, Your Excellency.”
He handed her the flower with a deep bow, which she accepted with a barely noticeable inclination of the head. Then the heavy white train glided past him, and he was alone.
In vain! Everything glided off this icy nature.
Hartmut stamped his foot angrily. Only ten minutes ago he had pa.s.sed such harsh judgment on all women, without an exception, to the Prince.
Now he had sung again that charming tune which he had tried so often successfully, and had found one who resisted it. But the proud, spoiled man would not believe that he could lose the game which he had won so often, when just here he was so anxious to win it.
And would it really remain only a game? He had not as yet accounted to himself for it, but he felt that the pa.s.sion which drew him to the beautiful woman was mingled at times with hatred.
They were conflicting emotions which had been deeply stirred when he walked by her side through the forest--half admiring, half repellent.
But it was just that which made the chase so interesting to the practised huntsman.
Love! The high, pure meaning of the word had remained foreign to the son of Zalika. When he learned to feel, he was living at his mother's side, she who had made such shameful play of her husband's love; and the women with whom she a.s.sociated were no better. The later life which she led with her son, unsettled and adventurous, with no firm ground under their feet, had finally crushed out the last remnant of idealism in the young man. He learned to despise before he learned to love, and now he felt the merited humiliation given him to be an insult.
”Struggle on,” he muttered; ”you battle against yourself. I have seen and felt it; and the one who does that, does not conquer in such a struggle.”
CHAPTER XXIV.
A slight noise at the entrance caused Hartmut to look up. It was the Amba.s.sador who appeared on the threshold, casting a searching glance into the room. He came for his wife, whom he thought still there.
He started at sight of Hartmut, and for a moment seemed undecided. Then he said, half audibly: ”Herr Rojanow.”
”Your Excellency.”
”I should like to speak to you privately.”
”I am at your service.”
Wallmoden entered, but took up his position so as to keep the entrance in view. It was hardly necessary, for the doors of the dining room had just been thrown open, and the whole a.s.sembly floated there. The salon adjoining the tower room was already empty.
”I am surprised to see you here,” the Amba.s.sador began in suppressed tones, but with the same insulting coldness which he had shown at the first meeting, and which brought the blood to the young man's brow. He drew himself up threateningly.
”Why, Your Excellency?”
”The question is superfluous. At any rate, I request you not to again force me into the position I was brought into a short while ago, when Prince Adelsberg introduced you to me.”