Part 48 (1/2)
At the far end a door was thrown open; a flush of light entered the chamber, and there came following it a troop of men wearing felt slippers and long linen ap.r.o.ns, and bearing upon their shoulders brooms, feather-heads, wash-leathers, brushes, dusters, steps, vacuum-cleaners, and other mysterious instruments of an uninterpretable form.
With the regularity and precision of a drilled army, and with no word spoken, they moved forward to the attack. Curtains were drawn, cords pulled, blinds raised, steps mounted. l.u.s.ters jingled to the touch of feathers, cornices shed down their minute particles of dust to the Charybdian maw of traveling gramophone. Over the carpet metallic cow-catchers wheezed and groaned with a loud trundling of wheels, and departed processionally to the chamber beyond. Then by a triple process, simultaneously conducted, the furniture-sheets were lifted, drawn off, and folded; a large wicker-table on wheels received and bore them away.
A cloud of light skirmishers followed after; and over every cus.h.i.+on and seat and polished surface plied their manicurist skill. Then a storming-party escaladed the gallery from below and the King, to avoid the embarra.s.sment of an encounter with a body of servitors who had not the pleasure of his acquaintance, was at last obliged to retire.
But what a wonderful machine had been here revealed to his gaze--manipulated without a word, marshaled by signs, and composed entirely of strangers! And to think that all this insect-like marvel of industry, so expeditious, and done on so huge a scale, had been going on daily under his own roof, and he had known nothing of it! So this was how his palace was cleaned for him, and why it never showed a sign of wear or the marks of muddy boots? Yet never before had any thought on the matter occurred to him. And what if some fine day those insects, fired by revolutionary zeal, had taken it to heart to rise up in their dozens by those escalading ladders to the first story and rush the private apartments, and murder him in his morning bath or in his bed!
What a surprising and unexplained apparition it would have been! But now, and for the future, he would know that daily about this time a large ant-like colony was running about under him, very strong of arm, very active of leg; and what protection, he wondered, from peril of sudden inroad was that search under his bed on the ninth day of every November? Did that really meet and counter modern methods of conspiracy and a.s.sa.s.sination, or the growing dangers of labor unrest? He very much doubted it.
And so, with his head very full of the wonder, the order, and the underlying disturbance of it all, he pa.s.sed on to his own inner chamber, and had now something to tell the Queen as to how their immediate domestic affairs were conducted which should entirely put aside all awkward questions as to what he had been doing the evening before and where he had spent the night.
But, as a matter of fact, sleek officialdom had sheltered the Queen from all anxiety, and she had not a notion that the King had been anywhere except to some consultation with ministers, and thence late to bed.
In order that his valet might find him there he got into it, and when, a couple of hours later, he greeted her Majesty he found that sanguine mind looking eagerly ahead and concerning itself very little over things which were past.
”Remember, my dear,” she said, looking up from her letters, ”that in three days' time the Prince of Schnapps-Wa.s.ser comes. I do hope, while he is here, that you will be fairly free.”
”Not so free as I thought I should be,” said the King, and he sighed heavily.
III
His Majesty had a good many things that day to discuss with the Prime Minister when at a later hour they met. He began on the matter which was most regular and formal; had he been at all likely to forget it the Queen's observation would have reminded him.
”By the way, Mr. Premier,” he said, ”as you already know, the Prince of Schnapps-Wa.s.ser arrives in a day or two; and there are certain possible eventualities arising out of his visit which we must be prepared for.
Hitherto the Princess Charlotte has had no definite grant made to her.
While she was still living with us, without an establishment of her own, I preferred to let the matter stand over. But now--well, now a change may be necessary.”
The Prime Minister's face beamed with congratulatory smiles. ”Your Majesty may be sure that the matter shall have immediate attention.”
”There will be no difficulty?”
”Oh, none whatever.”
”I will leave all question of the amount to be discussed later. I believe that it is etiquette, in the case of a reigning Prince, for him also to be consulted.”
”That is so, sir.”
”The Prince himself is very wealthy; and I think that you will find him disinterested. Still there is, of course, a certain balance to be observed.”
”Oh, quite.”
”I leave the matter, then, entirely in your hands.”
The Prime Minister bowed.
And then the conversation changed.
”You know what happened to me last night, I suppose,” said the King.
”Ah, yes, indeed, sir! You will pardon my silence; I was most horrified.