Part 11 (1/2)
After the first excitement of meeting was over, Countess Wjera's attention was naturally concentrated upon her son's betrothed.
”I can but congratulate you from my heart, Ossi,” she said earnestly, looking full into the young girl's eyes--eyes that shone like two blue violets under the clearest skies--violets that had suffered nothing from late frosts or too ardent suns.h.i.+ne. ”You are a favourite of fortune, my child.”
Gabrielle blushed, and buried her face in the bunch of white roses, which Oswald had brought her; and Oswald was touched, and smiled his thanks to his mother, as he whispered a tender word to his betrothed.
”Do you know who came in the same train with us?” Truyn suddenly asked, interrupting the happy moment.
”Capriani, father and son, I saw them,” said Oswald, ”look at him, mamma, there is my rival, the enterprising young spark, who sued for Gabrielle's hand. A mad idea, was it not? Gabrielle, and a son of Capriani!--we shouted with laughter, when the Melkweyser announced the proposal.”
The flurry of the arrival had subsided, and the Countess leisurely inspected through her eyegla.s.s the sallow young man who was talking with Georges Lodrin. Gabrielle said something about his dark blue travelling-suit, shot with gold; Zinka made inquiries, all in a breath, of her husband, and of the two lady's-maids, whether this or that article of luggage had not been left in Paris or in the railway coupe.
When at last all her anxieties on this point had been relieved, and they had pa.s.sed through the station to the carriages, they observed a magnificent four-in-hand, the harness decorated with a coronet.
”By Jove!” Truyn exclaimed with delight, ”superb, Ossi, superb! I have rarely seen four such beauties together!”
”Nor have I,” said Oswald, examining the horses critically, ”unfortunately they are not mine--they belong to Capriani.”
”Impossible!” Truyn said disdainfully, ”speculator that he is, he may bore through the isthmus of Panama, for all I care, but he cannot get together such a four-in-hand as that.”
”Fritz Malzin selected and arranged it for him,” Oswald explained.
”Poor Fritz!”
”I cannot understand him,” Truyn said in an undertone, and hastily changing the subject, he asked: ”Have you come to terms with Capriani, about the Kanitz affair, Ossi? Could not the sale be revoked?”
”The matter would have been very difficult to adjust, I am told--of course I understand nothing of such things,--” replied Oswald, ”but Capriani--what will you say to this, uncle?--yielded the point, 'out of special regard' for me, as his lawyer informed Dr. Schindler. Between ourselves, it was--what word shall I use?--audacious, for I have never spoken to him in my life, and yet I had to accept his uncalled-for courtesy, for Schmitt's sake.”
”Remarkable, very!” said Truyn, ”We usually have to pay dear for the courtesies of a Capriani and his kind!”
”Have you everything, Ella?” asked Zinka, ”shall we start?”
”I should like to have my hand-bag, Hortense has left it with the large luggage.”
Meanwhile, with an unpleasant smile and hat in hand, a sallow-faced, grey-haired, elderly man, with the look of a bird of prey, approached the Countess Wjera, and held out his right hand. ”I am immensely gratified, your Excellency, after so long a time ....!”
The Countess, her eyes half closed, measured him haughtily. ”With whom have I the pleasure ...?”
”Conte Capriani.”
The Countess silently shrugged her shoulders, and turning half away, called in an irritated tone, ”Are we ready to go at last, Ossi?....”
A whirling cloud of dust was soon the only trace left of the bustle of the arrival.
The short drive was spent by Truyn in reminiscences, by the betrothed pair in sentiment.
At the tea, which was awaiting the travellers, and of which the Lodrin's stayed to partake, there was much laughter over the _chic_ of the Caprianis, over their wealth, and--their obtrusiveness. Oswald suddenly grew thoughtful.
”Did you ever before meet these people, mamma?” he asked.