Part 10 (2/2)
Rojanow gave him a glance which was anything but friendly, and the young prince said sharply:
”Look here, Stadinger, you are treating us after a most unwarrantable fas.h.i.+on. You send Zena away, for no reason in the world, and she's the only one worth seeing about the whole place. There's not a woman in Rodeck who isn't past sixty and whose head doesn't wobble from side to side, and as to the belles of the kitchen whom you brought from Furstenstein to help us out, they're worse looking than our own people.”
”Your highness need not look at them,” suggested the steward. ”I gave strict orders that none of the maids were to come into the castle, but if your highness goes to the kitchen, as you did the day before yesterday--”
”Well, I must inspect my domestic arrangements once in a while. But I won't go near the kitchen a second time, I promise you that. But I'm provoked enough at you for having gathered together all the repulsive looking creatures in the neighborhood as soon as you knew I was coming.
You should be ashamed of yourself, Stadinger.”
The old man looked his young master full in the face, and his voice had an impressive sound, as he answered: ”I am not at all ashamed, your highness. When that prince of blessed memory, your father, a.s.signed me to this peaceful post, he said to me: 'Keep everything quiet and orderly at Rodeck, Stadinger; remember, I depend upon you.' Well, I have kept everything in order around this castle for twelve years, and more especially have I guarded those of my own household, and I mean to do so for the future, too. Has your highness any other orders for me?”
”No, you old boor!” cried the prince, half amused, half angry. ”Go on, now; we don't need any sermon on morals.”
Stadinger obeyed, he bowed low and marched off. Rojanow glanced after him and shrugged his shoulders with a sneer.
”I admire your forbearance, Egon; you certainly permit your servants to speak very freely--”
”Oh, Stadinger is an exception,” declared Egon. ”Of late days he has allowed himself great lat.i.tude, but as to his sending Zena away he wasn't far wrong. I'd have done the same thing in his place.”
”It isn't the first time the old fellow has made so bold as to call us both to account. If I were his master--he'd get his dismissal in this same hour.”
”I'm afraid if I attempted that, it would be all the worse for me,”
laughed the prince. ”Such an old heir-loom, who has served three generations already, and trotted me on his knee as a baby, deserves to be treated with respect. I would gain nothing by commanding and calling him to account. Peter Stadinger does what he pleases, and whenever it suits him, reads me a little text into the bargain.”
”How you can permit such liberties is incomprehensible.”
”It is natural that you should not understand it, Hartmut,” said his friend, earnestly. ”You only know the submissiveness of Sclavish servants in your own home, and in the Orient. They kneel and prostrate themselves whenever opportunity offers, and betray their masters at every turn, when it can be done with safety. Stadinger is a man with no civility in him. It doesn't make the least difference to him that I am 'your highness.' He is no respecter of persons, and has often said the most insulting things to my face, but I could leave hundreds of thousands in his hands, and he would guard every pfennig, and if Rodeck were in a blaze, and I within it, his seventy years would not prevent him plunging into the flames to rescue me--that's how it is with us in Germany.”
”Yes, with you in Germany,” Hartmut repeated slowly, as he fixed his eyes dreamily on the forest shadows.
”Are you as much prejudiced against us as ever?” asked Egon. ”I had to beg you hard enough to get you to come with me, for you seemed resolved never to put foot on German soil again.”
”I would I had not done so,” said Rojanow, darkly. ”You know--”
”That you a.s.sociate bitter memories with my country--yes. You told me that much, but you must have been a boy at the time. You should have outgrown your dislike by now. You are, on this point, so obstinately reserved, that to this day I have never learned what it is that you--”
”Egon, I beg you, drop the subject,” said Hartmut, almost rudely. ”I have declared to you more than once, that I will not and cannot speak on the subject of my early life. If you are suspicious of me, let me go; I have not forced myself upon you, you know that, but I will not endure this questioning.”
The hard, proud tone which he used toward his princely friend, seemed not unknown to the latter, who only shrugged his shoulders and said appeasingly:
”How excited you get in a moment; I believe you are right when you maintain that the air of Germany makes you nervous. You certainly have changed since you set foot in the country.”
”Possibly; I feel it myself, and I know I annoy you with my queer tempers lately, so you'd better let me go, Egon.”
”I will guard you well, instead. I did not catch you so easily that I can let you fly again after all my trouble. So remember that, Hartmut, for I won't let you go free at any price.”
The words had a joking sound, but Rojanow seemed to resent them. His eyes were dark, almost threatening, as he replied:
<script>