Part 28 (1/2)
”The training was all my own,” she said. ”I tucked myself.”
”Wastefully, under parental conditions--you yourself have owned it.”
”There is always more work than one can do.”
”There is much more work that you could do; but here, what is your chance? Has it not struck you--if you had only the position given you, what a power you might be, in that direction, I mean, of bringing the two halves of society face to face, which you say is your main object?
If that position were offered you would you accept it as a thing sent to you from G.o.d, or would you----?”
And then Max stopped abruptly, for he realized that in another moment he would have been offering her the succession to the throne, and he felt that the street was not exactly the right place for it. Not that he minded making the offer anywhere; but she, self-sacrificingly, might refuse; and a crowded street was not the place where he could tackle a refusal of the throne to advantage. It was not like an ordinary proposal; there were too many points to urge and objections to be met; while a certain amount of preliminary incredulity was almost inevitable.
She might know that he loved her still; but it would take a considerable amount of knowing that he also wished her to sit with him upon the throne; nay, for that matter, to sit with him off it, if Court etiquette and the fates so ordained. And if they did so ordain, where would that great position be which he was proposing to offer?
And so as Max has ended his declaration abruptly let us also end the chapter abruptly, and wonder what the next, or the next but one may have to bring forth.
CHAPTER XII
AN ARRIVAL AND A DEPARTURE
I
Bad-as-Bad was a hardy annual which grew high up among the hills and pine-forests on the borders of Schafs-Kleider and Schnapps-Wa.s.ser. With its roots extending into both States it flourished exceedingly for three months of each year. During the winter it was bottled up in its native pa.s.ses by snow, and for at least five months no visitors ventured thither to expose their const.i.tutions to the rigors of its climate or of its waters. But in another bottled-up form, of a more portable character, it made a great trade and reputation for itself throughout Europe; and during the three summer months crowned heads visited it in turn (often by careful diplomatic arrangement when they or their countries happened not to be on good speaking terms), and drew after them a steady influx from that cla.s.s of their communities on which a town composed almost entirely of hotels can most safely flourish.
The medicated springs, to which so many came but for which n.o.body thirsted, rose in Schnapps-Wa.s.ser territory; and being the property of the reigning house brought to it a huge revenue. Every red-stamped label broken so carelessly in the restaurants and sanatoria of Europe meant twopence halfpenny to the princely pocket of its highly descended ruler.
And it was upon these proceeds that the young heir had absented himself for three years and fitted out an expensive expedition of a semi-military character to the unexplored wilds of South America.
Behind his back local warfare had gone on. Not for nothing had he said ”crocodiles” to those orchestral scramblings in the ba.s.s of an imperially inspired oratorio; and Schafs-Kleider, receiving certain mysterious grants in aid (for its own funds were nil), had started to sink shafts at a lower level on the outskirts of the town; and after many failures had secured at one point a trickle of water which tasted suspiciously like the real article, and was declared by interested experts to be chemically the same.
News had gone out to the Prince in the wilderness that by this earth-stroke his revenues from the retail business might presently be very seriously affected.
His remedy had been simple; he had directed the town authorities to lay out a new cemetery at a strategic point on the slopes lying towards Schafs-Kleider; and though it had little actual effect upon the chemical properties of this new breach in his patent it created a prejudice in unscientific minds, and the Schafs-Kleider variant of the Bad-as-Bad waters failed to ”catch on.” And thus it came about that on returning from his three years' exile Berlin had not restored him to favor, and he, one of the richest and least enc.u.mbered princes in Europe, was more or less going a-begging--an easy prey to the match-making net which, by a.s.siduous correspondence, his aunts and others had prepared for him.
Bad-as-Bad, though economically its most important a.s.set, was not the capital of the princ.i.p.ality; but when the Prince arrived at Schnapps, thirty miles distant, Bad-as-Bad fired off a salute from a toy cannon in the gardens of the munic.i.p.ality, and hoisted the royal ensign on the flag-staff beside the kiosk. The princ.i.p.ality having been without its head for three years had recovered it.
On hearing that salute her Majesty, Queen Alicia of Jingalo, at once knew what it referred to. ”Ah!” she remarked, in a tone of complete satisfaction, ”that means that the dear Prince has arrived. What a distance he has been! I was afraid we might miss him.” And as she spoke her glance traveled across to her daughter Charlotte, and in the peace and plenitude of her domestic musings she smiled with more meaning than she was aware of. Princess Charlotte caught sight of that smile, and sitting observant saw presently that her mother was studying her with some attention.
”You are looking very well, child,” remarked her Majesty. ”I am sure that the place suits you.”
”Getting out of the place suits me,” said the Princess. ”I like the hills, and the forest. Three miles away one meets n.o.body, except the peasantry.”
”Well, be sure you don't overdo it; and don't let your face get too brown. Remember that sort of thing doesn't go with a low dress.”
”But I am not wearing low dress while I am here.”
”You may be before we go. We may have to give a dinner in the Prince's honor; or he in ours. Now he has arrived he is sure to come over and see us. What very nice-sized countries these princ.i.p.alities are! I wish we had them everywhere, then being kings and queens would be really no trouble whatever. If Jingalo had only been smaller how much younger it would have made your father; and, besides, it would have got rid of all that socialist element.”
How it would have done so the dear lady did not stop to explain; she rattled on merely because she had become aware that Charlotte was looking at her with a suspiciousness that was rather disconcerting. In her heart of hearts she was a little bit afraid of Charlotte, or of what Charlotte might do. She had not the key to her character; and when the Princess took advantage of a so-called holiday and a change of locality in order to develop new habits and drop certain conventions--especially conventions of dress--her Majesty became uneasy. But just now she was trying for special reasons to drive with a light rein; she wanted Charlotte to enjoy herself, to feel that in this place she could have things more her own way than was customary, and so develop a.s.sociations which would draw her back to the locality. So far the quite unusual experiment of accompanying the King to his cure had been a success; the people of Bad-as-Bad were delighted at the compliment of receiving Jingalese royalty in the form of a family party; all the aunts and other female relatives of the absent Prince had been most pleasant and attentive; and Charlotte herself had responded to the release accorded her from Court etiquette by becoming wonderfully well and looking really very handsome.