Part 48 (1/2)
”Now I understand your interest and sympathy,” he responded. ”Colonel Falkenried is to be pitied indeed.”
”Why he?” inquired Adelheid, struck by the hard tone. ”And how about your friend?”
”I have no friend. I have lost him,” cried Egon with a pa.s.sionate burst.
”What he told me two days ago made a break between us, but what I have since heard has parted us forever.”
”You judge a seventeen year old boy--he could not have been much older--very severely.”
There was deep reproof in Adelheid's voice as she spoke, but the prince shook his head pa.s.sionately.
”I'm not speaking of his flight, or his broken word, though they were both bad enough, considering he was an officer's son, but what I learned yesterday--I see, my dear madam, you do not know the worst. How should you? I should not have spoken.”
”I beg your highness,” began Adelheid again, ”to tell me the truth. You say that Rojanow has come back to enter the army. I am not surprised. I expected it, for it was the only thing left for him to do to expiate his old fault. Does he march beneath our colors yet?”
”So far he has not been able to gain admission, and I have been saved a fearful responsibility,” said Egon, with intense bitterness. ”He endeavored to get into several regiments but was refused every time.”
”Refused? And why?”
”Because he dared not acknowledge himself a German, and all strangers, especially Roumanians, are regarded with suspicion, and with justice, too. We can't be too cautious now, for fear of spies!”
”For G.o.d's sake, what do you mean by that?” exclaimed Adelheid, who began to see toward what Egon was drifting. He sprang up now in great excitement and came over to her side.
”If you wish to know, then listen to me. Hartmut came to me and desired me to use my influence to get him into one of our regiments. I refused at first, but he finally forced me to promise to do my utmost with a threat which I now think he had no intention of carrying into execution.
I kept my word, and went at once to a general officer whose brother had but recently returned from Paris where he was secretary of our legation.
This gentleman was present at the time of my visit, and as soon as he heard the name of Rojanow, asked many questions and then told us--I cannot speak of it--I have loved Hartmut more than any one else in the world, have almost adored him, his talents, his genius, and now I learn that this friend, who was all in all to me, is but a miserable, low wretch. He and his mother served as spies--spies, think of it--in Paris. Perhaps he would do the same in our army, and that was his object in striving to be admitted.”
He laid his hand over his eyes if to keep out the horrible picture.
There was something inexpressibly sad in the young man's face and manner as he told how his idol had been shattered. Adelheid rose, and supporting herself against a chair, spoke in an eager, excited, trembling tone.
”And what did he say when you accused him?”
”Rojanow, do you mean? I haven't seen him again and do not intend to. It is better to spare both him and me. He is at the Rodeck forestry awaiting an answer from me. I sent him three lines telling him what I had learned, without one word of comment. He has the letter by this time, I suppose, and that will be sufficient explanation.”
”G.o.d help him!”
”You speak sympathetically,” said the prince, sneering.
”Yes, for this is not the first time I have heard this terrible accusation. His father threw it into his face during their interview.”
”Well, when his own father acknowledged the disgrace, surely--”
”He is a sadly injured, deeply embittered man, and could have no unbiased judgment; but you, Hartmut's friend, who stood so near him, should s.h.i.+eld him from such an imputation!”
Egon looked with astonishment at the excited woman.
”That evidently seems an easy matter to you,” he said slowly. ”I could not do it. There was too much to condemn in Hartmut's life; he told me much himself that had seemed mysterious before, and I can find no excuse, no extenuating circ.u.mstances for his actions. Even his denunciation of--”
”Of his mother! She was the sword which hung over his head. It was she who destroyed her son! But he knew nothing of the shameful depths to which she had sunk; he lived with her but she concealed her life from him. I saw it, I knew it when his father hurled the dreadful accusation at him; he was as one struck by lightning. There was truth in the man's despairing cry. Whatever his youthful misdemeanors, his punishment in that hour balanced them all. His flight, his broken promise, have robbed him of a father, and of his dearest friend; but though they turn against him I will believe in him. Yes, to the death! Their charge is untrue, he is an innocent man.”
Adelheid was in a state of intense excitement now, her cheeks were aflame, her voice and manner had that intense pa.s.sion which love alone can give. Egon stood and looked at her. There it was, the awaking to love and life, of which he had so often dreamed; the sea of ice had melted forever, but for another.