Part 47 (1/2)
A shadow of annoyance darkened the Queen's fair brows.
”Since you have no fear, you may equally have no shame!” she said in icy-cold accents; ”Therefore it is easy to understand why you deliberately refuse to see the harm and cruelty done to our son, the Crown Prince, by his marriage with you, if such marriage were in the least admissible, which fortunately for all concerned, it is not. He is destined to occupy the Throne, and he must wed someone who is fit to share it. Kings and princes may love where they choose,--but they can only marry where they must! You are my son's first love;--the thought and memory of that may perhaps be a consolation to you,--but do not a.s.sume that you will be his last!”
Gloria drew back from her; her face had paled a little.
”You can speak so!” she said sorrowfully; ”You,--his mother! Poor Queen--poor woman! I am sorry for you!”
Without pausing to notice the crimson flush of vexation that flew over the Queen's delicate face at her words, she turned, now with some haughtiness, to the King.
”Speak plainly!” she said; ”What is it you want of me?”
Her flas.h.i.+ng eyes, her proud look startled him--he moved back a step or two. Then he replied with as much firmness and dignity as he could a.s.sume.
”Nothing is wanted of you, my child, but obedience and loyalty! Resign all claim upon the Crown Prince as his wife; promise never to see him again, or correspond with him,--and--you shall lose nothing by the sacrifice you make of your little love affair to the good of the country.”
”The good of the country!” echoed Gloria in thrilling tones. ”Do _you_ know anything about it? You--who never go among your people except to hunt and shoot and amuse yourself generally? You, who permit wicked liars and spendthrifts to gamble with the people's money! The good of the country! If my life could only lift the burden of taxation from the country, I would lay it down gladly and freely! If I were Queen, do you think I could be like her?” and she stretched forth her white arm to where the Queen, amazed, had risen from her seat, and now stood erect, her rich robes trailing yards on the ground, and flas.h.i.+ng at every point with jewels. ”Do you think I could sit unmoved, clad in rich velvet and gems, while one single starving creature sought bread within my kingdom?
Nay, I would sell everything I possessed and go barefoot rather! I would be a sister, not a mere 'patroness' to the poor;--I would never wear a single garment that had not been made for me by the workers of my own land;--and the 'good of the country' should be 'good' indeed, not 'bad,'
as it is now!”
Breathless with the sudden rush of her thoughts into words, she stood with heaving bosom and sparkling eyes, the incarnation of eloquence and inspiration, and before the astonished monarch could speak, she went on.
”I am your son's wife! He loves me--he has wedded me honourably and lawfully. You wish me to disclaim that. I will not! From him and him alone, must come my dismissal from his heart, his life and his soul. If he desires his marriage with me dissolved, let him tell me so himself face to face, and before you and his mother! Then I shall be content to be no more his wife. But not till then! I will promise nothing without his consent. He is my husband,--and to him I owe my first obedience.
I seek no honour, no rank, no wealth,--but I have won the greatest treasure in this world, his love!--and that I will keep!”
A door opened at the further end of the room--a curtain was quietly pushed aside, and the Crown Prince entered. With a composed, almost formal demeanour, he saluted the King and Queen, and then going up to Gloria, pa.s.sed his arm around her waist, and held her fast.
”When you have concluded your interview with my wife, Sir,--an interview of which I had no previous knowledge,” he said quietly, addressing the King; ”I shall be glad to have one of my own with her!”
The King answered him calmly enough.
”Your wife,--as you call her,--is a very incorrigible young person,” he said. ”The sooner she returns to her companions, the fisher-folk on The Islands, the better! From her looks I imagined she might have sense; but I fear that is lacking to her composition! However, she is perfectly willing to consider her marriage with you dissolved, if you desire it. I trust you _will_ desire it;--here, now, and at once, in my presence and that of the Queen, your mother;--and thus a very unpleasant and unfortunate incident in your career will be satisfactorily closed!”
Prince Humphry smiled.
”Dissolve the heavens and its stars into a cup of wine, and drink them all down at one gulp!” he said; ”And then, perhaps, you may dissolve my marriage with this lady! If you consider it illegal, put the question to the Courts of Law;--to the Pope, who most strenuously supports the sanct.i.ty of the marriage-tie;--ask all who know anything of the sacrament, whether, when two people love each other, and are bound by holy matrimony to be as one, and are mutually resolved to so remain, any earthly power can part them! 'Those whom G.o.d hath joined together, let no man put asunder.' Is that mere lip mockery, or is it a holy bond?”
The King gave an impatient gesture.
”There is no use in argument,” he said, ”when argument has to be carried on with such children as yourselves. What cannot be done by persuasion, must be done by force. I wished to act kindly and reasonably by both of you--and I had hoped better things from this interview,--but as matters have turned out, it may as well be concluded.”
”Wait!” said Gloria, disengaging herself gently from her husband's embrace; ”I have something to say which ought to meet your wishes, even though it may not be all you desire. I will not promise to give up my husband;--I will not promise never to see him, and never to write to him--but I will swear to you one thing that should completely put your fears and doubts of me at rest!”
Both the King and Queen looked at her wonderingly;--a brighter, more delicate beauty seemed to invest her,--she stood very proudly upright, her small head lifted,--her rich hair glistening in the soft suns.h.i.+ne that streamed in subdued tints through the high stained-gla.s.s windows of the room,--her figure, slight and tall, was like that of the G.o.ddess dreamt of by Endymion.
”You are so unhappy already,” she continued, turning to the Queen; ”You have lost so much, and you need so much, that I should be sorry to add to your burden of grief! If I thought I could make you glad,--if I thought I could make you see the world through my eyes, with all the patient, loving human hearts about you, waiting for the sympathy you never give; I would come to you often, and try to find the warm pulse of you somewhere under all that splendour which you clothe yourself in, and which is as valueless to me as the dust on the common road! And if I could show _you_” and here she fixed her steadfast glance upon the King,--”where you might win friends instead of losing them,--if I could persuade you to look and see where the fires of Revolution are beginning to smoulder and kindle under your very Throne,--if I could bear messages from you of compa.s.sion and tenderness to all the disaffected and disloyal, I would ask you on my knees to let me be your daughter in affection, as I am by marriage; and I would unveil to you the secrets of your own kingdom, which is slowly but steadily rising against you! But you judge me wrongly--you estimate me falsely,--and where I might have given aid, your own misconception of me makes me useless! You consider me low-born and a mere peasant! How can you be sure of that?--for truly I do not know who I am, or where I came from. For aught I can tell, the storm was my father, and the sea my mother,--but my parents may as easily have been Royal! You judge me half-educated,--and wholly unworthy to be your son's wife. Will the ladies of your Court compete with me in learning? I am ready! What I hear of their attainments has not as yet commanded my respect or admiration,--and you yourself as King, do nothing to show that you care for either art or learning! I wonder, indeed, that you should even pause to consider whether your son's wife is educated or not!”
Absolutely silent, the King kept his eyes upon her. He was experiencing a novel sensation which was altogether delightful to him, and more instructive than any essay or sermon. He, the ostensible ruler of the country, was face to face with a woman who had no fear of him,--no awe for his position,--no respect for his rank, but who simply spoke to him as though he had been any ordinary person. He saw a scarcely perceptible smile on his son's handsome features,--he saw that Von Glauben's eyes twinkled, despite his carefully preserved seriousness of demeanour, and he realized the almost absurd powerlessness of his authority in such an embarra.s.sing position. The a.s.sumption of a mute contempt, such as was vaguely expressed by the Queen, appeared to him to be the best policy;--he therefore adopted that att.i.tude, without however producing the least visible effect. Gloria's face, softly flushed with suppressed emotion, looked earnest and impa.s.sioned, but neither abashed nor afraid.
”I have read many histories of kings,” she continued slowly; ”Of their treacheries and cruelties; of their neglect of their people! Seldom have they been truly great! The few who are reported as wise, lived and reigned so many ages ago, that we cannot tell whether their virtues were indeed as admirable as described,--or whether their vices were not condoned by a too-partial historian. A Throne has no attraction for me!