Part 42 (1/2)
And the Grand d.u.c.h.ess answered, quietly, ”It shall be as you will.”
More lately, while the Grand Duke and the Baroness craned their necks, and de Chateauroux bent, very slowly, over her upturned lips, the Grand d.u.c.h.ess struggled from him, saying, ”Hark, Philippe! for I heard some one--something stirring--”
”It was the wind, dear heart.”
”Hasten!--I am afraid!--Oh, it is madness to wait here!”
”At dawn, then,--in the gardens?”
”Yes,--ah, yes, yes! But come, mon ami.” And they disappeared in the direction of the palace.
III
The Grand Duke looked dispa.s.sionately on their retreating figures; inquiringly on the Baroness; reprovingly on the moon, as though he rather suspected it of having treated him with injustice.
”Ma foi,” said his Highness, at length, ”I have never known such a pa.s.sion for sunrises. Shortly we shall have them announced as 'Patronized by the n.o.bility.'”
The Baroness said only, with an ellipsis, ”Her own cousin, too!” [Footnote: By courtesy rather than legally; Mademoiselle Berlin was, however, undoubtedly the Elector of Badenburg's sister, though on the wrong side of the blanket; and to her (second) son by Louis Quinze his French Majesty accorded the t.i.tle of Comte de Chateauroux.]
”Victoria,” observed the Grand Duke, ”has always had the highest regard for her family; but in this she is going too far--”
”Yes,” said the Baroness; ”as far as Vienna.”
”--and I shall tell her that there are limits, Pardieu,” the Grand Duke emphatically repeated, ”that there are limits.”
”Whereupon, if I am not mistaken, she will reply that there are--baronesses.”
”I shall then appeal to her better nature--”
”You will find it,” said the Baroness, ”strangely hard of hearing.”
”--and afterward I shall have de Chateauroux arrested.”
”On what grounds, your Highness?”
”In fact,” admitted the Grand Duke, ”we do not want a scandal”
”It is no longer,” the Baroness considered, ”altogether a question of what we want.”
”And, morbleu! there will be a horrible scandal--”
”The public gazettes will thrive on it.”
”--and trouble with her father, if not international complications--”
”The armies of Noumaria and Badenburg have for years had nothing to do.”
”--and later a divorce.”