Part 1 (2/2)

His wife always maintained that he was something of a Paul Pry; and perhaps she was right.

”Ah!” he exclaimed, dragging to light a piece of embroidery upon j.a.panese canvas. ”The first design for a cus.h.i.+on--the 17th is my birthday. What little red book is this?--'Maximes de La Rochefoucauld'--don't know him. And here--why, only look!” He pulled out a package tied with blue ribbon. ”A ma.n.u.script! It seems that Zdena has leanings to authors.h.i.+p! H'm--h'm! When a girl like our Zdena takes to such ways, it is usually a sign that she feels impelled to confide in a roundabout way, to paper, something which nothing could induce her to confess frankly to any living being. H'm! I really am curious to know what goes on in that whimsical, childish brain.

”'My Memoirs!'” The major pulled aside the blue ribbon that held the package together. ”A motto! Two mottoes!--a perfect _luxe_ of mottoes!”

he murmured, and then read out aloud,--

'Whether you marry or not, you will always repent it.'

Plato.

Then comes,--

'Should you marry, then be sure Life's sorest ills you must endure.'

Lermontow.

'L'amour, c'est le grand moteur de toutes les btises humaines.'

G. Sand.

I really should not have supposed that our Zdena had already pondered the marriage problem so deeply,” he said, gleefully; then, contemplating with a smile the ma.s.s of wisdom scribbled in a bold, das.h.i.+ng handwriting, he added, ”there seems to be more going on in that small brain than we had suspected. ”What do you think, Rosel? may not Zdena possibly have a weakness for Harry?”

”Nonsense!” replied the Baroness. She was evidently somewhat annoyed,--first, because her husband had roused her from a pleasant nap, or, rather, disturbed her in the perusal of an article upon Grecian excavations, and secondly, because he had called her Rosel. Her real name was Rosamunda, a name of which she was very proud; she really could not, even after almost twenty years of married life, reconcile herself to her husband's thus robbing it of all its poetry. ”Nonsense!”

she exclaimed, with some temper. ”I have a very different match in view for her.”

”I did not ask you what you had in view for Zdena,” the major observed, contemptuously. ”I know that without asking. I only wish to know whether during your stay in Vienna you did not notice that Zdena had taken a liking to----”

”Oh, Zdena is far too sensible, and, if I am not greatly mistaken, also too ambitious, to dream of marrying Harry. She knows that Harry would ruin his prospects by a marriage with her,” Frau von Leskjewitsch continued. ”There's no living upon love and air alone.”

”Nevertheless there are always some people who insist upon trying it, although the impossibility has long been demonstrated, both theoretically and practically,” growled the major.

”And, aside from all that, Harry is not at all the husband for your niece,” Frau Rosamunda went on, didactically. ”She is wonderfully well developed intellectually, for her age. And he--well, he is a very good fellow, I have nothing to say against him, but----”

”'A very good fellow'! I should like to know where you could find me a better,” cried the major. ”In the first place, he is as handsome as a man can be----”

”As if beauty in a man were of any importance!” Frau von Leskjewitsch remarked, loftily.

Paying no attention to this interruption, the major went on reckoning up his favourite's advantages, in an angry crescendo. ”He rides like a centaur!” he declared, loudly, and the comparison pleased him so much that he repeated it twice,--”yes, like a centaur; he pa.s.sed his military examinations as if they had been mere play, and he is considered one of the most brilliant and talented officers in the army. He is a little quick-tempered, but he has the best heart in the world, and he has been in love with Zdena since he was a small boy; while she----”

”Let me advise you to lower your voice a little,” said Frau Rosamunda, going to the window, which she partly closed.

”Stuff!” muttered her husband.

”As you please. If you like to make Zdena a subject for gossip, you are quite free to do so, only I would counsel you in that case to consult your crony Krupitschka. He has apparently not lost a single word of your harangue. I saw him from the window just now, staring up here, his mouth wide open, and the Spanish flies crawling out of his bottle and up his sleeves.”

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