Part 39 (1/2)
”Indeed! Thanks for the suggestion. I belong to the Liberal party, and do not feel called upon to play the part of an aristocratic Cerberus defending his prejudices.” Here the Baron took out his note-book.
”Aristocratic Cerberus,” he murmured; ”that may be useful some day in the Reichsrath. Besides,” he continued, ”it would just now be particularly unpleasant to quarrel with the Harfinks. If you had asked me before your betrothal whether I should like it, I should have frankly said no. The connection is a vulgar one; but, since matters have gone so far, I do not like to make a disturbance. The brother of the girl's mother, Doctor Grnbart, is one of the leaders of our party. He formerly conducted himself towards me with great reserve, suspecting that my liberal tendencies were due merely to a whim, to a fleeting caprice. I met him, however, a short time ago, on my tour through Sweden and Norway. He was travelling with his wife and daughter. We travelled together. He is a very clever man, but--between ourselves--intolerable, and with dirty nails. As for his women-folk,--good heavens!” The Baron clasped his hands. ”The wife always eat the heads of the trout which I left in the dish, and the daughter travelled in a light-blue gown, with a green botany-box hanging at her back, and such teeth,--horrible! The wife is a schoolmaster's daughter, who married the old man to rid herself of a student lover. Very worthy, but intolerable. I travelled with them for six weeks, and won the Doctor's heart by my courtesy to his wife and daughter. I should have been more cautious if I had been at housekeeping in Vienna, although the most violent Austrian democrats are very reasonable in social respects, especially with regard to their women. They are flattered by attention to them on a journey, but they are not aggressive at home. This, however, is not to the point.”
It did indeed seem not to the point to Harry, who bit his lip and privately clinched his fist. He was on the rack during his father's rambling discourse.
”What I wanted to say”--the Baron resumed the thread of his discourse--”is, that this democrat's pride is his elegant sister, Baroness Harfink, and the fact that she was once invited, after great exertions in some charitable undertaking, to a ball at the Princess Colloredo's--I think it was at the Colloredo's. I should like to have seen her there!” He rubbed his hands and smiled. ”My democrat maintains that she looked more distinguished than the hostess. You understand that if I should wound his family pride I could not hope for his support in the Reichsrath, where I depend upon it to procure me a hearing.”
Harry privately thought that it would be meritorious to avert such a calamity, but he said, ”Ah, father, that democrat's support is not so necessary as you think. Depend upon it, you will be heard without it.
And then a quarrel with a politician would cause you only a temporary annoyance, while the continuance of my betrothal to Paula will simply kill me. I have done my best to show her the state of my feelings towards her. She does not understand me. There is nothing for it but for you to undertake the affair.” Harry clasped his hands in entreaty, like a boy. ”Do it for my sake. You are the only one who can help me.”
Baron Karl was touched. He promised everything that his son asked of him.
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE BARON'S AID.
The Baron never liked to postpone what he had to do; it was against his principles and his nature. The matter must be attended to at once. As soon as the mid-day meal was over, he had the carriage brought, put on a black coat, and set out for Dobrotschau.
The fountain plashed dreamily as he drove into the castle court-yard.
The afternoon sun glittered on the water, and a great dog came towards him as he alighted, and thrust his nose into his hand. He knew the old dog.
”How are you, old friend? how does the new _rgime_ suit you?” he said, patting the animal's head. Two footmen hurried forward in drab breeches and striped vests. To one of them Baron Karl gave his card, and then awaited the mistress of the mansion in the s.p.a.cious and rather dark drawing-room into which he had been shown.
He looked about him, and was very well pleased. The tall windows of the room were draped with pale-green silk; the furniture, various in shape and style, was all convenient and handsome; vases filled with flowers stood here and there on stands and tables; and in a black ebony cabinet, behind gla.s.s doors, there was a fine collection of old porcelain. The Baron was a connoisseur in old porcelain, and had just risen to examine these specimens, when the servant returned to conduct him to the Baroness's presence.
Baron Karl's heart throbbed a little fast at the thought of his mission, and he privately anathematized ”the stupid boy” who had been the cause of it.
”Since he got himself into the sc.r.a.pe, he might have got himself out of it,” he thought, as he followed the lackey, who showed him into a small but charming boudoir, fitted up after a rural fas.h.i.+on with light cretonne.
”I'm in for it,” the Baron thought, in English. He liked to sprinkle his soliloquies with English phrases, having a great preference for England, whence he imported his clothes, his soap, and his political ideas of reform _en gros_. In the Reichsrath they called him ”Old England.”
As he entered the pretty room, a lady rose from a low lounge and came towards him with outstretched hands. Those hands were small, soft, and shapely, and the rings adorning the third finger of one of them--a ruby and a large diamond, both very simply set--became them well. Baron Karl could not help carrying one of them to his lips; thus much, he thought, he owed the poor woman in view of the pain he was about to inflict upon her. Frau von Harfink said a few pleasant words of welcome, to which he replied courteously, and then, having taken his seat in a comfortable arm-chair near her favourite lounge, the conversation came to a stand-still. The Baron looked in some confusion at his hostess. There was no denying that, in spite of her fifty years, she was a pretty woman. Her features were regular, her teeth dazzling, and if there was a touch of rouge on her cheeks, that was her affair; it did not affect her general appearance. The fair hair that was parted to lie in smooth waves above her brow was still thick, and the little lace cap was very becoming. Her short, full figure was not without charm, and her gown of black _crpe de Chine_ fitted faultlessly. The Baron could not help thinking that it would be easier to give her pain if she were ugly.
There was really no objection to make to her. He had hoped she would resemble his friend Doctor Grnbart, but she did not resemble him.
While he pondered thus, Frau von Harfink stretched out her hand to the bell-rope.
”My daughters are both out in the park; they will be extremely glad to see you, especially Paula, who has been most impatient to know you. I will send for them immediately.”
Karl Leskjewitsch prevented her from ringing. ”One moment, first,” he begged; ”I--I am here upon very serious business.”
Her eyes scanned his face keenly. Did she guess? did she choose not to understand him? Who can tell? Certain it is that no woman could have made what he had come to say more difficult to utter.
”Oh, let 'serious business' go for the present!” she exclaimed; ”there is time enough for that. A mother's heart of course is full----”
In his confusion the Baron had picked up a pamphlet lying on the table between Frau von Harfink and himself. Imagine his sensations when, upon looking at it closely, he recognized his own work,--a pamphlet upon ”Servility among Liberals,”--a piece of political bravado upon which the author had prided himself not a little at the time of its publication, but which, like many another masterpiece, had vanished without a trace in the yearly torrent of such literature. Not only were the leaves of this pamphlet cut, but as the Baron glanced through it he saw that various pa.s.sages were underscored with pencil-marks.
”You see how well known you are here, my dear Baron,” said Frau von Harfink, and then, taking his hat from him, she went on, ”I cannot have you pay us a formal visit: you will stay and have a cup of tea, will you not? Do you know that I am a little embarra.s.sed in the presence of the author of that masterpiece?”
”Ah, pray, madame!”--the democrat _par excellence_ could not exactly bring himself to an acknowledgment of Frau von Harfink's brand-new patent of n.o.bility,--”ah, madame, the merest trifle, a political _capriccio_ with which I beguiled an idle hour; not worth mentioning.”