Part 72 (1/2)
”Raimund!” screamed the princess, rising suddenly from her chair and clinging to her son, ”what do you mean to do?”
”Nothing mean, be sure,” he said, trying to disengage himself gently from her arms. ”Farewell!”
”Go then, barbarian, and murder--” She could not finish; the terrible excitement of these last two scenes was too much for her suffering nerves; she sank fainting upon her chair.
At that moment Nadeska came back. A glance at the scene in the room told her what had happened.
”You will kill the poor lady,” she said, hastening to a.s.sist her fainting mistress. ”And why all this? It will never be known.”
The prince laughed. It was a fearful laugh.
”Do you think so, Nadeska?” he said. ”But suppose you talked in your dreams? Or have you sold your dreams also to the princess?”
He beat his forehead with his closed fist and rushed out.
CHAPTER XV.
As the prince hurried through the ante-room, like Orestes driven by the furies, he met the Baroness Grenwitz, who came to take leave of the princess. He thought he would sink into the ground for shame, as she looked fixedly into his eyes. She said something to him, but he did not hear what it was. His ears were ringing with strange sounds. He uttered an inarticulate sound, which was to represent an apology. Then he rushed out.
The baroness followed him with a sombre, suspicious look.
Anna Maria had not had a happy moment since she had entered the house.
The reception last night had touched her to the quick. The constrained manner of the prince, the unprofitable efforts of the princess to give to the interview a more cordial tone, the thinly-veiled irony of the count, who ridiculed every affectionate word--all this had filled her with sad apprehensions for Helen's future. She had pa.s.sed the night without sleep, thinking over the riddle, and again and again she had come to the conclusion that the princess must have been faithless to her husband at some time in her life, and that the count thus had an iron hold on her. Perhaps the striking want of resemblance between father and son might have contributed to such a conclusion. Thus she had risen late in very bad humor, and with a violent nervous headache, and was rather pleased to learn that Miss Helen had driven out to visit her friend, Sophie. Helen had scarcely left the house when two letters were brought in, one from Grunwald, the other from the city itself. She opened the one from Grunwald first. The news of Malte's illness filled her with consternation. She had always trembled for his life, from childhood up; were her fears to be realized now? And if Malte should die--oh that G.o.d in His great mercy would prevent that!--the whole entailed estate went, now that Felix also was no more, to a Captain Grenwitz, the son of her former husband's first cousin, a beggar, whom she had never liked, and who had always looked like a hungry pike eagerly snapping at the estate. He was henceforth to be master at Grenwitz? Why, after all, she would have preferred to find out that Oswald Stein was really Harald's legitimate son.
Mechanically she opened the second letter. It was from Albert Timm and ran thus:
”Madame:--After our last interview you will not be surprised if I now use the weapons _against_ you, which I until then had been using _for_ you. Mr. Stein has been fully informed. Before the year is out--you may rely on it--he is master of Stantow and Baerwalde, and you will, besides, have to pay the back interest for twenty-four years. This is simple ruin for you. I might rub my hands with delight at your discomfiture; but Albert Timm is a good-natured fellow and offers you a piece of good advice in return for your ingrat.i.tude. Make your peace with Mr. Stein before it is too late! Better a small sacrifice than an entire loss. I send your adversary to you; receive him kindly, and if you are wise give him the hand of your daughter, who loves him madly.
The princely match is anyhow at an end, considering that the prince is not the son of a count, but of a rope-dancer, and the matter is in such a position that the whole world will soon enjoy the grand scandal. But I must resist your desire to hear the full explanation of this interesting affair, which you might disregard as you disregarded certain other explanations of mine. Perhaps you may change your mind after the interview with Mr. Stein, and become convinced of the sincere friends.h.i.+p with which I have the honor, etc., etc.”
At any other time the baroness would have looked upon this letter merely as a renewed effort on the part of Mr. Timm to regain his lost position; but this morning her mind was so disturbed that the letter and everything else appeared to her in quite a new light. Was not, after all, everything and anything possible in this false world? It was evident that this Mr. Timm knew more than most people, and at all events the persistence with which he adhered to his statements was very remarkable. Even Felix in his last letter had admitted the fact!
The usual energy of the baroness gradually gave way under the heavy pressure. And now Helen, whom she had sent for, was not coming back; and in an hour the train would start by which alone she could reach Grunwald next day! Her trunks were not packed, the question whether Helen should accompany her or stay had not been decided, and she had yet to take leave of the princess and the prince. But that, at all events, could be done in Helen's absence! Necessity released her from the rules of etiquette; and, besides, the princess herself had asked her the night before to come unannounced to her rooms.
Thus Anna Maria left her rooms and went hastily down the long pa.s.sages and through the ante-rooms which led to the apartments of the princess, when suddenly the prince rushed out, evidently in a high state of excitement, and pa.s.sed her without saying a word.
”That is strange!” said the baroness. The door opened again suddenly, and Nadeska rushed out with terror in her face.
”Where is the princess?” asked the baroness.
”In there. She is unwell. No one is coming to answer the bell. I am going to look for the servants.”
”Do so!” said the baroness. ”I will stay in the meantime with the princess.”
Nadeska did not look as if she liked the arrangement, but she dared not prevent the baroness from entering. She hurried away, while Anna Maria stepped into the rosy twilight of the apartments of the princess.
She was still lying in the arm-chair near the fire. Her half-closed eyes and the convulsive movements of her hands showed that she had not quite recovered yet from a fit of fainting.
”Give me back my son, Nadeska!” she murmured. ”He must not wrestle with that Hercules; the father is stronger than the son. You see! you see!