Part 47 (1/2)
”Yes, of course--why not?” said Katie.
”The infernal cad!” cried Harry.
”Oh, what naughty language!” said Katie. ”Oh!”
”D--n him!” cried Harry, furiously. ”What does the fellow mean?”
”I declare I won't listen to such shocking language,” said Katie.
”Now stop!”
”Well--but what does the scoundrel mean?” repeated Harry, in jealous wrath.
”Well, he means to try--to marry me.”
”Marry!--you!”
”Oh yes; and he says he'll make me Queen of Spain--and he says he has a claim to the crown of France also, which he promises to share with me.”
”Good heavens!” said Harry, in utter consternation; for Harry had not yet done more than vaguely suspect that ”His Majesty” might be any other than what he claimed to be, and this design of his upon Katie seemed now a peril of no common magnitude.
”Why, Katie,” he added, after a pause, ”a royal personage can't marry a private person like you. It's illegal, you know.”
”Oh, but the fun of it is he's only a common Irishman, and he drinks whiskey, and has an awful brogue. Oh, it's such fun to listen to him!
But the greatest fun of all is, auntie believes in him. She thinks he is really Don Carlos; and, best of all, she thinks he is making love to her, and proposing to her.”
”To her! Why, she has a husband already.”
”Oh, but she thinks he has been killed.”
”Killed? Good heavens! Is that really so? Poor old Russell! Oh, heavens! The villains! They'd do it, too.”
And Harry thought of the bonds and the search after them. It seemed to him not at all unlikely that they had killed Russell so as to get at these, or perhaps to punish him for not giving them up. Horror now quite overwhelmed him. He felt even shocked at Katie's levity.
”But Mrs. Russell,” he said; ”how does she bear this horrible, calamity?”
”Bear it?” said Katie; ”why, she wants to be Queen of Spain, and France too!”
”What, when her husband lies murdered close by? Oh, heavens!--oh, good heavens!”
”Well, do you know, it does seem very odd indeed.”
”But you, Katie--how can you talk of such horrors in such a way? What will be the fate of the rest of us, after this?”
”Why, you poor foolish boy, you needn't scold and go on so. I don't believe he's dead any more than you are. I believe that ”His Majesty”
only said it in fun. In fact, he never did actually say so.”
Harry sighed a sigh of perplexity.
”But, you know,” continued Katie, ”Mrs. Russell went and got it into her poor old head. Oh, she's very, very imaginative, poor dear old auntie, and she would have it so. And she thinks that all the speeches which ”His Majesty” makes at me are intended for her.”