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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Princess Virginia, by
+C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Princess Virginia
+
+Author: C. N. Williamson
+        A. M. Williamson
+
+Illustrator: Leon Guipon
+
+Release Date: August 17, 2009 [EBook #29715]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PRINCESS VIRGINIA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell, D Alexander and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ THE
+
+ PRINCESS VIRGINIA
+
+ BY
+
+ C. N. & A. M. WILLIAMSON
+
+ Illustrations by Leon Guipon
+
+ NEW YORK
+ McCLURE, PHILLIPS & CO.
+ MCMVII
+
+
+
+
+ _Copyright, 1907, by McClure, Phillips & Co._
+
+ _Published April, 1907_
+
+ _Copyright, 1906, 1907, by The Curtis Publishing Company_
+
+
+
+
+ _By the same Authors_
+
+ _My Friend the Chauffeur_
+ _Lady Betty Across the Water_
+ _Rosemary in Search of a Father_
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "_Who is that girl?" asked Count von Breitstein_]
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+ CHAPTER                                               PAGE
+
+     I WHEN THE NEWS CAME                                3
+
+    II FOUR GENTLEMEN OF IMPORTANCE                     28
+
+   III A CHAMOIS HUNTER                                 42
+
+    IV THE EAGLE'S EYRIE                                52
+
+     V LEO VERSUS LEOPOLD                               82
+
+    VI NOT IN THE PROGRAM                               98
+
+   VII THE HONORS OF THE DAY                           117
+
+  VIII THE EMPEROR'S BALL                              126
+
+    IX IRON HEART AT HOME                              152
+
+     X VIRGINIA'S GREAT MOMENT                         174
+
+    XI THE MAN WHO WAITED                              197
+
+   XII "THE EMPEROR WILL UNDERSTAND"                   206
+
+  XIII THE MAGIC CITRON                                214
+
+   XIV THE EMPEROR AT BAY                              227
+
+    XV THROUGH THE TELEPHONE                           246
+
+   XVI TRUTH ACCORDING TO THE CHANCELLOR               254
+
+  XVII THE OLDNESS OF THE CHANCELLOR                   279
+
+ XVIII NOT AT HOME                                     291
+
+   XIX THE THIRD COURSE                                295
+
+    XX AFTER THE CURTAIN WENT DOWN                     298
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+ "WHO IS THAT GIRL?" ASKED COUNT VON
+ BREITSTEIN                                  _Frontispiece_
+
+                                                     FACING
+                                                      PAGE
+
+ SHE LOST HER SCANT FOOTHOLD, SLIPPED,
+ TRIED TO HOLD ON, FAILED, AND SLID
+ DOWN THE ROCK                                          50
+
+ "LET THE LAW DEAL WITH THE MADMAN; IT
+ IS MY WILL"                                           128
+
+ "NEVER!" SHE EXCLAIMED. "IT'S AN INSULT"              194
+
+ AT SIGHT OF HER THE EMPEROR STOPPED ON
+ THE THRESHOLD                                         292
+
+ "WE SHALL NEVER BE OLD, FOR WE LOVE
+ EACH OTHER," SAID THE EMPEROR                         300
+
+
+
+
+THE PRINCESS VIRGINIA
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+WHEN THE NEWS CAME
+
+
+"No," said the Princess. "No. I'm--_dashed_ if I do."
+
+"My darling child!" exclaimed the Grand Duchess. "You're impossible.
+If any one should hear you!"
+
+"It's he who's impossible," the Princess amended. "I'm just trying to
+show you--"
+
+"Or to shock me. You are _so_ like your grandmother."
+
+"That's the best compliment any one can give me, which is lucky, as
+it's given so often," laughed the Princess. "Dear, adorable Virginia!"
+She cuddled into the pink hollow of her hand the pearl-framed ivory
+miniature of a beautiful, smiling girl, which always hung from a thin
+gold chain around her neck. "They shouldn't have named me after you,
+should they, if they hadn't wanted me to be like you?"
+
+"It was partly a question of money, dear," sighed the Grand Duchess.
+"If my mother hadn't left a legacy to my first daughter only on
+consideration that her own extremely American name of Virginia should
+be perpetuated--"
+
+"It was a delicious way of being patriotic. I'm glad she did it. I
+love being the only Royal Princess with American blood in my veins and
+an American name on my handkerchiefs. Do you believe for an instant
+that if Grandmother Virginia were alive, she would let Granddaughter
+Virginia marry Prince Henri de Touraine?"
+
+"I don't see why not," said the Grand Duchess. "She wasn't too
+patriotic to marry an English Duke, and startle London as the first
+American Duchess. Heavens, the things she used to do, if one could
+believe half the wild stories my father's sister told me in warning!
+And as for my father, though a _most_ charming man, of course, he
+could not--er--have been called precisely _estimable_, while Prince
+Henri certainly is, and an exceedingly good match even for you--in
+present circumstances."
+
+"Call him a match, if you like, Mother. He's undoubtedly a stick. But
+no, he's _not_ a match for me. There's only one on earth." And
+Virginia's eyes were lifted to the sky as if, instead of existing on
+earth, the person in her thoughts were placed as high as the sun that
+shone above her.
+
+"I should have preferred an Englishman--for you," said the Grand
+Duchess, "if only there were one of suitable rank, free to--"
+
+"I'm not thinking of an Englishman," murmured her daughter.
+
+"If only you _would_ think of poor Henri!"
+
+"Never of him. You know I said I would be d--"
+
+"Don't repeat it! Oh, when you look at me in that way, how like you
+are to your grandmother's portrait at home--the one in white, painted
+just before her marriage. One might have known you would be
+extraordinary. That sort of thing invariably skips over a generation."
+
+The Grand Duchess laid down the theory as a law; and whether or no she
+were right, it was at least sure that she had inherited nothing of the
+first Virginia's daring originality. Some of her radiant mother's
+beauty, perhaps, watered down to gentle prettiness, for the Hereditary
+Grand Duchess of Baumenburg-Drippe at fifty-one was still a
+daintily-attractive woman, a middle-aged Dresden china lady, with a
+perfect complexion, preserved by an almost perfect temper; surprised
+eyebrows, kindly dimples, and a conventional upper lip.
+
+She was not by birth "Hereditary." Her lord and (very much) her master
+had been that, and had selected her to help him reign over the
+Hereditary Grand Duchy of Baumenburg-Drippe, not only because her
+father was an English Duke with Royal Stuart blood in his veins,
+but because her Virginian mother had brought much gold to the
+Northmoreland exchequer. Afterwards, he had freely spent such portion
+of that gold as had come to his coffers, in trying to keep his little
+estates intact; but now it was all gone, and long ago he had died of
+grief and bitter disappointment; the Hereditary Grand Duchy of
+Baumenburg-Drippe was ruled by a cousinly understudy of the German
+Emperor William the Second; the one son of the marriage had been
+adopted, as heir to his crown, by the childless King of Hungaria; the
+handsome and lamentably extravagant old Duke of Northmoreland was
+dead; his title and vast estates had passed to a distant and
+disagreeable relative; and the widowed Grand Duchess, with her one
+fair daughter, had lived for years in a pretty old house with a
+high-walled garden, at Hampton Court, lent by the generosity of the
+King and Queen of England.
+
+For a long moment the Dresden china lady thought in silence and
+something of sadness. Then she roused herself again and asked the one
+and only Royal Princess with an American name what, in the way of a
+match, she really expected.
+
+"What do I expect?" echoed Virginia. "Why, I _wish_ for the Moon--no,
+I mean the Sun. But I don't expect to get it."
+
+"Is that a way of saying you never intend to marry?"
+
+"I'm afraid it amounts to that," admitted Virginia, "since there is
+only one man in the world I would have for my husband."
+
+"My dearest! A man you have let yourself learn to care for? A man
+beneath you? How terrible! But you see no one. I--"
+
+"I've never seen this man. And--I'm not 'in love' with him; that would
+be too foolish. Because, instead of being beneath, he's far, far above
+me."
+
+"Virginia! Of whom can you be talking? Or is this another joke?"
+
+Virginia blushed a little, and instead of answering her mother's look
+of helpless appeal, stared at the row of tall hollyhocks that blazed
+along the ivy-hidden garden wall. She did not speak for an instant,
+and then she said with the dainty shyness of a child pinned to a
+statement by uncomprehending elders, "It isn't a joke. Nonsense,
+maybe--yet not a joke. I've always thought of him--for so many years
+I've forgotten when it first began. He's so great, so--everything that
+appeals to me; how could I help thinking about him, and putting him on
+a pedestal? I--there's no idea of marriage in my mind, of course.
+Only--there's no other man possible, after all the thoughts I've given
+him. No other man in the world."
+
+"My dear, you _must_ tell me his name."
+
+"What, when I've described him--almost--do you still need to hear his
+name? Well then, I--I'm not ashamed to tell. It's 'Leopold.'"
+
+"Leopold! You're talking of the Emperor of Rhaetia."
+
+"As if it could have been any one else."
+
+"And you have thought of him--you've cherished him--for years--as an
+ideal! Why, you never spoke of him particularly before."
+
+"That's because you never seriously wanted me to take a husband until
+this prim, dull French Henri proposed himself. My thoughts were my
+own. I wouldn't have told, only--you see why."
+
+"Of course. My precious child, how extremely interesting, and--and
+romantic." Again the Grand Duchess lapsed into silence. Yet her
+expression did not suggest a stricken mind. She merely appeared
+astonished, with an astonishment that might turn into an emotion more
+agreeable.
+
+Meanwhile it was left for Virginia to look vexed, vexed with herself.
+She wished that she had not betrayed her poor little foolish
+secret--so shadowy a secret that it was hardly worthy of the name. Yet
+it had been precious--precious since childhood, precious as the
+immediate jewel of her soul, because it had been the jewel of her
+soul, and no one else had dreamed of its existence. Now she had shown
+it to other eyes--almost flaunted it. Never again could it be a joy to
+her.
+
+In the little room, half study, half boudoir, which was her own, there
+was a desk, locked in her absence, where souvenirs of the young
+Emperor of Rhaetia had been accumulating for years. There were
+photographs which Virginia had contrived to buy secretly; portraits of
+Leopold from an early age, up to the present, when he was shown as a
+tall, dark, cold-eyed, warm-lipped, firm-chinned young man of thirty.
+There were paragraphs cut from newspapers, telling of his genius as a
+soldier, his prowess as a mountaineer and hunter of big game, with
+dramatic anecdotes of his haughty courage in time of danger, his
+impulsive charities, his well thought out schemes for the welfare of
+his subjects in every walk of life.
+
+There were black and white copies of bold, clever pictures he had
+painted; there was martial music composed by him, and plaintive
+folk-songs adapted by him, which Virginia had tried softly to herself
+on her little piano, when nobody was near. There were reports of
+speeches made by him since his accession to the Throne; accounts of
+improvements in guns, and an invention of a new explosive; there was a
+somewhat crude, yet witty play which he had written; and numerous
+other records of the accomplishments and achievements, and even
+eccentricities which had built up the Princess Virginia's ideal of
+this celebrated young man, proclaimed Emperor after the great
+revolution eight years ago.
+
+"You are worthy to be an Empress."
+
+Her mother's voice broke into Virginia's thoughts. She started, and
+found herself under inspection by the Grand Duchess. At first she
+frowned, then she laughed, springing up on a quick impulse to turn
+earnest into jest, and so perhaps escape further catechising.
+
+"Yes, would I not make an Empress?" she echoed, stepping out from the
+shadow of her favorite elm, into the noontide radiance of summer.
+
+The sun poured over her hair, as she stood with uplifted head, and
+threaded it with a network of living gold, gleaming into the dark gray
+eyes rimmed with black lashes and turning them to jewels. Her fair
+skin was as flawless in the unsparing light as the petals of lilies,
+and her features, though a repetition of those which had made a
+Virginia girl famous long ago, were carved with Royal perfection.
+
+"There is no real reason why you should not make an Empress, dearest,"
+said her mother, in pride of the girl's beauty, and desiring,
+womanlike, to promote her child's happiness. "Stranger things have
+happened. Only last week, at Windsor, the dear Queen was saying what
+a pity poor Henri was not more--but no matter, he is well enough.
+However, if--And when one comes to think of it, it's perhaps not
+unnatural that Leopold of Rhaetia has never been mentioned for you,
+although there could be nothing against the marriage. What a match for
+any woman! A supreme one. Not a Royal girl but would go on her knees
+to him, if--"
+
+"I wouldn't," said Virginia. "I might worship him, yet he should go on
+his knees to _me_."
+
+"I doubt if those proud knees of his will ever bend in homage to man
+or woman," replied the Grand Duchess. "But that's a mere fantasy. I'm
+serious now, darling, and I very much wish you would be."
+
+"Please, I'd rather not," smiled Virginia, uneasily. "Let us not talk
+of the Emperor any more--and never again after this, Mother. You know
+now. That's all that's necessary, and--"
+
+"But it's not all that's necessary. You have put the idea into my
+head, and it's not an unpleasing idea. Besides, it has evidently been
+in _your_ head for a long time--and--I should like to see you
+happy--see you in a position such as you're entitled to grace. You
+are a very beautiful girl (there's no disguising that from you, as
+you know you are the image of your grandmother, who was a celebrated
+beauty) and the best blood in Europe runs in your veins. You are
+royal, and yet--and yet our circumstances are such that--in fact, for
+the present, we're somewhat handicapped."
+
+"We're beggars," said Virginia, laughing; but it was not a happy
+laugh.
+
+"Cophetua married the beggar maid," the Grand Duchess reminded her,
+with elaborate playfulness. "And, you know, all sorts of things have
+happened in history--much stranger than any one would dare put in
+fiction, if writing of Royalties. My dear husband was second cousin
+once removed to the German Emperor, though he was treated--but we
+mustn't speak of that. The subject always upsets me. What I was
+leading up to, is this; though there may be other girls who, from a
+worldly point of view, are more desirable; still, you're _strictly_
+within the pale from which Leopold is entitled to choose his wife, and
+if--"
+
+"Dear little Mother, there's no such 'if.' And as for me, _I_ wasn't
+thinking of a 'worldly point of view.' The Emperor of Rhaetia barely
+knows that I exist. And even if by some miracle he should suddenly
+discover that little Princess Virginia Mary Victoria Alexandra
+Hildegarde of Baumenburg-Drippe was the one suitable wife for him on
+earth, I wouldn't have him want me because I was 'suitable,'
+but--because I was irresistible. I'd want his love--all his love--or I
+would say 'no, you must look somewhere else for your Empress.'"
+
+"But that's nonsense, darling. Royal people seldom or never have the
+chance to fall in love," said the Grand Duchess.
+
+"I'm tired of being Royal," snapped the Princess. "Being Royal does
+nothing but spoil all one's fun, and oblige one to do stupid, boring
+things, which one hates."
+
+"Nevertheless, noblesse _does_ oblige," went on the Dresden china
+prophetess of conventionality. "When alliances are arranged for women
+of our position, we must content ourselves with the hope that love may
+come after marriage. Or if not, we must go on doing our duty in that
+state of life to which Heaven has graciously called us."
+
+"Bother duty!" broke out Virginia. "Thank goodness, in these days not
+all the king's horses and all the king's men can make even a Princess
+marry against her will. I _hate_ that everlasting cant about 'duty in
+marriage.' When people love each other, they're kind and good, and
+sweet and true, because it's a joy, not because it's a duty. And
+that's the only sort of loyalty worth having between men and women,
+according to me. I wouldn't accept anything else from a man; and I
+should despise him if he were less--or more--exacting."
+
+"Virginia, the way you express yourself is almost improper. I'm
+thankful that no one hears you except myself," said the Grand Duchess.
+But at this moment, when clash of tongues and opinions seemed
+imminent, there occurred a happy diversion in the arrival of letters.
+
+Virginia, who was a neglectful correspondent, had nothing; but two or
+three important looking envelopes claimed attention from the Grand
+Duchess, and as soon as the ladies were once more alone together in
+the sweet-scented garden, she broke the crown-stamped seal of her son
+Adalbert, now by adoption Crown Prince of Hungaria.
+
+"Open the others for me, dear," she demanded, excitedly, "while I see
+what Dal has to say." And Virginia leisurely obeyed, wondering whether
+Dal's news would by-and-by be passed on to her. It was always an event
+when a long letter came from him; and the Grand Duchess invariably
+laughed and exclaimed, and sometimes blushed as she read; but when she
+blushed, the letter was not given to the Crown Prince's sister.
+
+There was a note to-day from an old friend of her mother's of whom
+Virginia was fond, and she had just begun to be interested in the
+third paragraph, all about an adorable Dandy Dinmont puppy, when an
+odd, half-stifled ejaculation from the Grand Duchess made the girl
+lift her eyes.
+
+"Has Dal been having something beyond the common in the way of
+adventures?" she inquired dryly.
+
+Her mother did not answer; but she had grown pink and then pale.
+
+Virginia began to be uneasy. "What is the matter? Is anything wrong?"
+she asked.
+
+"No--nothing in the least wrong. Far from it, indeed. But--oh, my
+child!"
+
+"Mother dear, what is it?"
+
+"Something so extraordinary--so wonderful--I mean, as a
+coincidence--that I can hardly speak. I suppose I can't be dreaming?
+You are really talking to me in the garden, aren't you?"
+
+"I am, and I wish you were telling me the mystery. Do, dear. You look
+awake, only rather odd."
+
+"It would be strange if I didn't look odd. Dal says--Dal says--"
+
+"What has he been doing? Getting engaged?"
+
+"No. It is--your Emperor, not Dal, who talks of being engaged."
+
+"Oh," said Virginia, trying not to speak blankly, trying not to flush,
+trying not to show in any way the sudden sick pain in her heart.
+
+Of course she was not in love with him. Of course, though she had been
+childish enough long ago to make him her ideal, and foolishly faithful
+enough to keep him so, she had always known that he would never be
+more to her than a Shadow Emperor. Some day he would marry one of
+those other Royal girls who were so much more suitable than she; that
+would be natural and right, as she had more than once told herself
+with no conscious pang. But now that the news had come--now that the
+Royal girl was actually chosen, and she must hear the letter and read
+about the happy event in the newspapers, it was different. She felt
+suddenly cold and sick under the blow; hurt and defrauded, and even
+jealous. She knew that she would hate the girl--some wretched,
+commonplace girl, with stick-out teeth, perhaps, or no figure, and no
+idea of the way to wear her clothes or do her hair.
+
+But she swallowed hard, and clenched her fingers under the voluminous
+letter about Dandy Dinmont. "Oh, so our friend is going to be
+married?" she remarked lightly.
+
+"That depends," replied the Grand Duchess, laughing mysteriously, with
+a catch in her voice, as if she had been a nervous girl. "That
+depends. You must guess--but no, I won't tease you. My dear, my dear,
+after Dal's letter, coming as it has in the midst of such a
+conversation, I shall be a firm believer in telepathy. This letter, on
+its way to us, must have put the thoughts into our minds, and the
+words on our tongues. It may be that the Emperor of Rhaetia will
+marry; it may not. For, my sweet, beautiful girl, it depends
+upon--you."
+
+"Me?" The voice did not sound to Virginia like her own. Was she too,
+dreaming? Were they both in a dream?
+
+"He wishes to marry you."
+
+All the letters dropped from Virginia's lap, dropped, and fluttered to
+the grass slowly, like falling rose leaves. Scarcely knowing what she
+did, she clasped her hands over the young bosom shaken with the sudden
+throbbing of her heart. Perhaps such a betrayal of feeling by a Royal
+maiden decorously sued (by proxy) for her hand, was scarcely correct;
+but Virginia had no thought for rules of conduct, as laid down for her
+too often by her mother.
+
+"He wishes to marry--me?" she echoed, dazedly. "Why?"
+
+"Providence must have drawn your inclination toward him, dearest. It
+is indeed a romance. Some day, no doubt, it will be told to the world
+in history."
+
+"But how did he--" Virginia broke off, and began again: "Did he tell
+this to Dal, and ask him to write you?"
+
+"Not--not precisely that," admitted the Grand Duchess, her face
+changing from satisfaction to uneasiness. For Virginia was difficult
+in some ways, though adorable in others, and held such peculiar ideas
+about life--inherited from her American grandmother--that it was
+impossible to be sure how she would receive the most ordinary
+announcements.
+
+The Princess's rapt expression faded, like the passing of dawn.
+
+"Not precisely that?" she repeated. "Then what--how--"
+
+"Well, perhaps--though it's not strictly the correct thing--you had
+better read your brother's letter for yourself."
+
+Virginia put her hands behind her back with a childish gesture, and a
+frightened look came into the eyes which at most times gazed bravely
+upon the world. "I--somehow I can't," she said. "Please tell me."
+
+"To begin with, then, you know what an admiration Dal has felt for
+Count von Breitstein, ever since that diplomatic visit the Rhaetian
+Chancellor paid to Hungaria. The fancy seemed to be mutual; but then,
+who could ever resist Dal, if he wanted to be liked? The Chancellor
+has written to him from time to time, and Dal has quite enjoyed the
+correspondence; the old man can be witty as well as cynical if he
+chooses, and Dal says he tells good stories. Now it seems (in the
+informal way in which such affairs are usually put forward) that Count
+von Breitstein has written confidentially to Dal, as our only near
+male relative, asking how your family would regard an alliance between
+Leopold and you, or if we have already disposed of your hand. At last
+the Emperor is inclined to listen to his Chancellor's advice and
+marry, and you, as a Protestant Princess--"
+
+"A Protestant Princess, indeed!" cried Virginia. "I protest against
+being approached by him on such terms."
+
+The face of the Grand Duchess was darkened by the gloom of her
+thoughts. "My daughter," she exclaimed mildly, yet despairingly, "it's
+not possible that when this wonderful chance--this unheard of
+chance--this chance that you were praying for--actually falls into
+your hands, you will throw it away for--for a sentimental, school-girl
+scruple?"
+
+"I was not praying for it," said Virginia. "I'm sure, Mother, _you_
+would have considered it most bold in me to pray for it. And I didn't.
+I was only refusing other chances."
+
+"Well, at all events, you have this one now. It is yours."
+
+"Not in the one way I should have loved to see it come. Oh, Mother,
+why does the Emperor want to marry me? Isn't there some other reason
+than just because I'm a proper, Protestant Princess?"
+
+"Of course," insisted the Grand Duchess, faintly encouraged. "Dal
+mentions several most excellent reasons in his letter--if you would
+only take them sensibly."
+
+"I should like to hear them, at all events," answered Virginia.
+
+"Well, you see the Empress of Rhaetia must be a Protestant, and there
+aren't many eligible Protestant girls who would be acceptable to the
+Rhaetians--girls who would be popular with the people. Oh, I have
+finished about that! You need not look so desperate. Besides, Dal
+explains that Leopold is a young man who dominates all around him. He
+wishes to take for his bride a girl who could not by any possibility
+herself be heiress to a throne. Dal fancies that his desire is to mold
+his wife, and therefore to take a girl without too many important and
+importunate relatives; for he is not one who would dream of adding to
+his greatness by using the wealth or position of a woman. He has all
+he needs, or wants, of that sort. And then, Dal reminds me, Leopold
+is very partial to England, who helped Rhaetia passively, in the time
+of her trouble eight years ago. The fact that you have lived in
+England and had an English education, would be favorably regarded both
+by Leopold and his Chancellor. And though I've never allowed you to
+have a photograph taken, since you were a child (I hate seeing young
+girls' faces in the newspapers and magazines; even though they are
+Royal, their features need not be public property!) and you have lived
+here in such seclusion that you've been little seen, still, the rumor
+has reached Rhaetia that you are--good to look at. Leopold has been
+heard to say that, whatever else the future Empress of Rhaetia may be,
+he won't give his people an ugly woman to reign over them. And so,
+altogether--"
+
+"And so, altogether, my references being satisfactory, at a pinch I
+might do for the place," cut in Virginia, with the hot, impatient
+rebellion of her youth. "Oh, Mother, you think me mad or a fool, I
+know; and perhaps I am mad; yet not mad enough not to see that it
+would be a great thing, a wonderful thing to be asked in marriage by
+the One Man in my world, if--ah, that great 'if'--he had only seen and
+fallen in love with me. It might have happened, you know. As you say,
+I'm not ugly. And I can be rather pleasant if I choose--so I believe.
+If he had only come to this land, to see what I was like, as Royal men
+did in the dear old fairy stories, and then had asked me to be his
+wife, why, I should have been conceited enough to think it was because
+he loved me, even more than because of other things. Then I should
+have been happy--yes, dear, I'll confess it to you now--almost happy
+enough to die of the great joy and triumph of it. But now I'm not
+happy. I will marry Leopold, or I'll marry no man. But I swear to you,
+I won't be married to Leopold in Count von Breitstein's hateful old,
+cold, cut-and-dried way."
+
+"It's the Emperor's way as well as von Breitstein's."
+
+"Then for once in his big, grand, obstinate life he'll have to learn
+that there's one insignificant girl who won't play Griselda, even for
+the sake of being his Empress."
+
+The girl proclaimed this resolve, rising to her feet, with her head
+high, and a look in her gray eyes which told the Grand Duchess that it
+would be hopeless for her to argue down the resolution. At first it
+was a proud look, and a sad look; but suddenly a beam of light
+flashed into it, and began to sparkle and twinkle. Virginia smiled,
+and showed her dimples. Her color came and went. In a moment she was a
+different girl, and her mother, bewildered, fearful still, dared to
+hope something from the change.
+
+"How odd you look!" she exclaimed. "You've thought of something. You
+are happy. You have the air of--of having found some plan."
+
+"It found me, I think," the girl answered, laughing. "All
+suddenly--just in a flash. That's the way it must be with
+inspirations. This is one--I know it. It's all in the air--floating
+round me. But I shall grasp it soon."
+
+She came close to her mother, still smiling, and knelt down in the
+grass at her feet, looking up with radiance in her eyes.
+
+Luckily there was no one save the Dresden china lady and the birds and
+flowers to see how a young Princess threw her mantle of dignity away;
+for the two did not keep Royal state and a Royal retinue in the quaint
+old house at Hampton Court; and the big elm which Virginia loved,
+kindly hid the mother and daughter from intrusive eyes.
+
+"You do love me, don't you, dearest?" cooed the Princess, softly as a
+dove.
+
+"You know I do, my child, though I don't pretend to understand you,"
+sighed the Grand Duchess, well aware that she was about to be coaxed
+into some scheme, feeling that she would yield, and praying Providence
+that the yielding might not lead her into tribulation.
+
+"People grow dull if we understand them too well," said Virginia.
+"It's like solving a puzzle. There's no more fun in it, when it's
+finished. But you wish me to be happy, darling?"
+
+"More than I wish for anything else, excepting of course dear Dal's--"
+
+"Dal is a man and can take care of himself. _I_ must do the best I
+can--poor me! And there's something I want so much, so much, it would
+be heaven on earth, all my own, if I could win it. Leopold's love,
+quite for myself, as a girl, not as a 'suitable Protestant Princess.'
+For a few horrid minutes, I thought it was too late to hope for that,
+and I must give him up, because I never could be sure if I accepted
+him without his love, and he _said_ it had come afterwards, that it
+was really, really true. Anyway, it could never be the same; and I
+was miserable over what might have been. Then, suddenly, I saw how it
+still might be. I almost think I may be able to win his love, if
+you'll promise to help me, dear."
+
+"Of course I will," said the Grand Duchess, carried out of her pretty
+little, conventional self into unwonted impulsiveness, by the warmth
+of kisses soft and sweet as the roses on Virginia's bosom.
+
+"That is, I will if I can. But I don't at all see what I can do."
+
+"I see. And what I want you to do, is to please, _please_ see with my
+eyes."
+
+"They're very bright ones," smiled her mother.
+
+Princess Virginia clasped the Grand Duchess round the waist so tightly
+that it hurt. Then she laughed, an odd, half-frightened, excited
+laugh. "Dearest, something perfectly wonderful is going to happen to
+you and me," she said. "The most wonderful thing that ever has
+happened. We are going to have a--great--adventure. And what the end
+of it will be--I don't know."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+FOUR GENTLEMEN OF IMPORTANCE
+
+
+Twilight fell late in the tiny Rhaetian village of Alleheiligen. So
+high on the mountain side were perched the simple inn and the group of
+brown chalets clustering round the big church with its bulbous,
+Oriental spire, that they caught the last red rays of sunset and held
+them flashing on burnished copper roof plates, and jeweling small,
+bright window-panes long after the green valley below was curtained
+with shadow.
+
+One September evening, two dusty traveling carriages toiled up the
+steep, winding road that led to the highest hamlet of the Rhaetian
+Alps, and a girl walking beside the foremost driver (minded, as he
+was, to save the jaded horses) looked up to see Alleheiligen
+glittering like a necklet of gems on the brown throat of the mountain.
+Each window was a great, separate ruby set in gold; the copper bulb
+that crowned the church steeple was a burning carbuncle; while above
+the flashing band of gorgeous color, the mountain reared its head,
+facing westward, its steadfast features carved in stone, the brow
+snow-capped and rosy where the sun touched it, blue where the shadows
+lay.
+
+The driver assured the young English lady, whom he much admired for
+her pluck as well as beauty, that she had far better return to the
+carriage; that indeed, she need not have left it. Her extra weight
+would be but as that of a feather to the horses, which were used to
+carrying far heavier loads than that of to-day, up the steep mountain
+road to Alleheiligen in the "high" season of July and August, when
+many tourists from all countries came to rest for a night and see the
+wonderful view. He even grew voluble in his persuasions, but the girl
+still smilingly insisted that she liked walking, and the brown-faced
+fellow with the soft green hat and curly cock feather admired her the
+more for her firmness and endurance.
+
+She was plainly dressed in gray, which did not show the dust, and
+though her skirt and short jacket were well made, and her neat little
+hat jaunty and becoming--almost dangerously becoming--she was not
+half as grand in appearance as some of the ladies who drove up with
+him in July and August. Still, the man said to himself, there was an
+air about her--no, he could not describe it even to himself--but it
+meant distinction. And then, as she was English, it was as pleasing as
+it was remarkable that she could speak Rhaetian so prettily. She had
+learned it, she said when he respectfully ventured a question,
+because, since she was a child, she had taken an interest in Rhaetian
+history and literature. And this seemed strange to him, that so dainty
+a lady should have learned such a language for pleasure, because the
+people of most countries found it excessively difficult--as difficult
+as Hungarian and just enough like German to make it even more
+difficult, perhaps. But this English girl said she had picked it up
+easily; and the young man's heart warmed to her when she praised
+Rhaetian music and Rhaetian poetry.
+
+This was the last touch; this won him wholly; and without stopping
+further to analyze or account for his admiration, the driver of the
+first carriage found himself bestowing confidences upon his gracious
+companion as they slowly tramped up the winding road, the reins looped
+over his arm.
+
+He told her of his life; how he had not always lived down there in the
+valley and driven tourists for a living. Before he fell in love and
+married a valley girl, and had a young family to rear, his house had
+been aloft, in Alleheiligen. He was born on the mountain side; his
+mother still lived in the village. It was she who kept the inn. Ach,
+but a good woman, and a cook to the king's taste--or rather, the
+Emperor's taste--if it was her own son who said it.
+
+He was glad that the English ladies would be stopping with her for a
+few days at this season. She would make them comfortable, more
+comfortable than would be possible at a crowded time, and then,
+besides, after the season was over, and the strangers had been
+frightened away by the first flurry of snow, the poor mother grew
+lonely and tired of idleness. Oh yes, she stayed the winter through.
+It was home to her. There were not many neighbors, then, it was true,
+yet she would not be happy to go away. Mountain folk never really
+learned to love the valleys.
+
+What, the ladies had not written to the inn in advance? Ah, well, that
+would not matter at this season. There would be rooms, and to spare;
+the ladies could take their choice; and the mother would have a
+pleasant surprise. Glad he was that he chanced to be the one to bring
+it.
+
+Those who knew Frau Yorvan, know that her larder was never empty of
+good things, and that her linen was aired and scented with the dried
+lavender blossoms gathered down below. Indeed, she had need to be ever
+in readiness for distinguished guests, because sometimes--but the
+eloquent tongue of Alois Yorvan was suddenly silent, like the clapper
+of a church bell which the ringers have ceased to pull, and his
+sunburnt face grew sheepish.
+
+"Because sometimes?" echoed the girl, in her pretty Rhaetian. "What
+happens sometimes, that your mother must ever be expecting?"
+
+"Oh," the man stammered a little foolishly, "I was but going to say
+that she has sometimes to entertain people of the high nobility, of
+different nations. Alleheiligen, though small, is rather celebrated,
+you know."
+
+"Has your Emperor been here?" asked the young lady.
+
+"It may be," answered Alois, jauntily. "It may be. Our Emperor has
+been to most places."
+
+His companion smiled and put no more questions.
+
+Slowly they climbed on; the two carriages, containing the English
+girl's mother, a middle-aged companion, a French maid, and a
+reasonable supply of luggage, toiling up behind, the harness jingling
+with a faint sound as of fairy bells.
+
+Then at last they came to the inn, a quaint house, half of stone, half
+of rich brown shingles; a huge picture, crowded with saints of special
+importance to Alleheiligen, painted in once crude, now faded colors,
+on a swinging sign. A characteristic, yodeling cry from Alois, sent
+forth before the highest turn of the road was reached, brought an
+apple-cheeked and white-capped old woman to the door; then it was the
+youngest of the travelers who asked, with a pleasant greeting in
+Rhaetian, for the best suite of rooms which Frau Yorvan could give.
+
+But to the girl's astonishment the landlady showed none of the delight
+her son had predicted. Surprised she certainly was, even startled, and
+certainly embarrassed. For an instant she seemed to hesitate before
+replying, then her emotion was partly explained by her words.
+Unfortunately her best rooms were engaged; four of the bedrooms with
+the choicest view, and the one private sitting-room the inn possessed.
+But if the ladies would put up with the second best, she would gladly
+accommodate them. Was it but for the night? Oh, for several days!
+(Again the apple face looked dubious.) Well, if the ladies would
+graciously enter, and choose from what she had to offer, she would be
+honored.
+
+They did enter and presently wrote their names as Lady Mowbray, Miss
+Mowbray, Miss Manchester, and maid. An hour later when the new-comers,
+mother, daughter and _dame de compagnie_, sat down to a hot supper in
+a bed-chamber hastily but skilfully transformed into a private
+dining-room, the youngest of the three remarked to Frau Yorvan upon
+the peaceful stillness of her house.
+
+"One would think there wasn't a soul about the place except
+ourselves," said she, "yet you've told us you have other guests."
+
+"The gentlemen who are stopping here are away all day long in the
+mountains," explained Frau Yorvan. "It is now the time for chamois
+hunting and it is for that, and also the climbing of a strange group
+of rocks called the Bunch of Needles, only to be done by great
+experts, that they come to me."
+
+"They are out late this evening. Aren't you beginning to be a little
+anxious about them, if they go to such dangerous places?"
+
+"Oh, to-night, gracious Fraeulein, they will not return at all," said
+the landlady, warming impulsively to the subject. "They often stop at
+a kind of hut they have near the top of the mountain, to begin some
+climb they may wish to undertake very early. They are much closer to
+it there, you see, and it saves their wasting several hours on the
+way. They are constantly in the habit of stopping at the hut, in fine
+weather; but they are very considerate; they always let me know their
+plans beforehand."
+
+"If they're away so much, I think it a little selfish in them to keep
+your one private sitting-room, when you might need it for others,"
+remarked the girl.
+
+"Oh, but gracious Fraeulein, you must not say that!" cried the old
+woman, looking as much shocked as if her young guest had broken one of
+the commandments.
+
+The girl laughed. "Why not?" she inquired. "Are the gentlemen of such
+importance that they mustn't be criticized by strangers?"
+
+Frau Yorvan was embarrassed. "They are excellent patrons of mine,
+gracious Fraeulein, that is all I meant," said she. "I cannot bear
+that unjust things should be thought of such--good gentlemen."
+
+"I was only joking," the girl reassured her. "We are perfectly
+satisfied with this room, which you have made most comfortable.
+All I care for is that the famous walks in the neighborhood shall
+not be private. I may, at least, walk as much as I like and even
+climb a little, I and my friend, Miss Manchester, who is a daring
+mountaineer," (with this she threw a glance at the middle-aged lady in
+black, who visibly started and grew wild-eyed in response) "for I
+suppose that your guests have not engaged the whole Schneehorn for
+their own."
+
+The landlady's hospitable smile returned. "No, gracious Fraeulein. You
+are free to wander as you will, but do not, I beg you, go too far, or
+attempt any climbs of real difficulty, for they are not to be done
+without guides; and take care you do not stray into wild places where,
+by making some movement or sound before you were seen by the hunters,
+you might be mistaken for a chamois."
+
+"Even our prowess is hardly likely to lead us into such peril as
+that," laughed the girl, who seemed much more friendly and inclined
+toward conversation than the two elders of the party. "But please
+wake us early to-morrow morning. My friend Miss Manchester and I would
+like to have breakfasted and be ready for a start by eight o'clock at
+latest."
+
+Again the placid features of the lady in black quivered; and though
+she said nothing, Frau Yorvan pitied her. "Would you not wish, in any
+case, to have a guide?" she asked. "I could engage you an intelligent
+young man who--"
+
+"Thank you, no," broke in the girl, decidedly. "A guide-book is
+preferable to a guide, for what we mean to do. We sha'n't attempt any
+places which the book says are unsafe for amateurs. But what an
+excellent engraving that is over the fireplace, with the chamois horns
+above it. Isn't that a portrait of your Emperor when he was a boy?"
+
+The landlady's eyes darted to the picture. "Ach, I had meant to carry
+it away," she muttered.
+
+The girl's quick ears caught the words. "Why should you carry it away?
+Don't you love the Emperor, that you would put his face out of sight?"
+
+"Not love _Unser Leo_?" cried the old woman, horrified. "Why, we
+worship him, gracious Fraeulein; we would die for him, any day, all of
+us mountain people--and yes, all Rhaetians, I believe. I could not
+let you go back to your own land with the idea that we do not love the
+noblest Emperor country ever had. As for what I said about the
+portrait, I didn't know that I spoke aloud, I am so used to mumbling
+to myself, since I began to grow deaf and old. But of course, I wished
+it put away only because it is such a poor thing, it does _Unser Leo_
+no sort of justice. You--you would not recognize him from that
+picture, if you were to see him now."
+
+With this excuse, Frau Yorvan hurried out to fetch another dish, which
+she said must be ready; to cool her hot face, and to scold herself for
+her stupidity, all the way down-stairs.
+
+She was gone some time; and the girl who had, no doubt unwittingly,
+occasioned the old woman's uneasiness, took advantage of her absence
+to laugh, excited, happy laughter.
+
+"Poor, transparent old dear, so pleased and proud of her great secret,
+which she thinks she's keeping so well!" she exclaimed. "I'm sure she
+doesn't dream that she's as easy to read as a book with big, big
+print. She's in a sad fright now, lest we inconvenient foreigners
+should chance upon her grand gentlemen to-morrow, recognize one of
+them from the portrait, and spoil his precious incognito."
+
+"Then--you think that _he_ is really here--in this out of the way
+eyrie?" half whispered the Grand Duchess.
+
+"I feel sure he is," answered Princess Virginia.
+
+For a moment there was silence. Then said the Grand Duchess, with an
+air of resignation, "Well, I suppose we should be glad--since we have
+come to Rhaetia for the purpose of--dear me, I can scarcely bring
+myself to say it."
+
+"You may say it, since our dear old lamb of a Letitia knows all about
+it, and is in with us," returned Virginia. "But--but I truly didn't
+expect to find him _here_. One knows he comes sometimes; it's been in
+the papers; but this time they had it that he'd gone to make a week's
+visit to poor old General von Borslok at the Baths of Melina; and I
+thought, before we went to Kronburg with all our pretty letters of
+introduction, as he was away from the palace there, it would be
+idyllic to use up the time with a visit to Alleheiligen. I don't want
+you and Letitia to think that I was just making catspaws of you both,
+and forcing you without knowing, to help me unearth him in his lair.
+Still, as he _is_ here--"
+
+"Perhaps he isn't," suggested the Grand Duchess. "I don't see that you
+have much ground for fancying so."
+
+"Oh, _ground_!" echoed Virginia, scornfully. "It's instinct that I go
+upon, not ground. That woman's face when she saw foreign tourists at
+her door, out of season, when she had a right to think she was safe
+from invasion. Her stammering about the best rooms being taken; her
+wish to get rid of us; her distress that she couldn't possibly do so,
+without making matters worse. The way she talks of her 'four
+gentlemen.' Her horror at my _lese majeste_. Her confusion about the
+portraits; her wish to impress it upon us that _Unser Leo_ is quite
+changed. Instinct ought to be ashamed if it couldn't play detective as
+far as that. But--of course we may not see him. If she can help it, we
+won't. He won't like being run to earth by tourists, when he is
+amusing himself; and perhaps the trusty landlady will send the
+intelligent young guide whom I refused, to warn him, so that if he
+chooses he can keep out of the way."
+
+"I almost hope she may send," said the Grand Duchess. "I don't think
+Providence wills a meeting here. You have brought no pretty dresses. I
+_should_ like him to see you first when you look your best, since, to
+your mind, so much depends upon his feelings in this matter."
+
+"Our first meeting is--on the knees of the gods," murmured Virginia.
+
+And then Frau Yorvan came into the room with a souffle.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+A CHAMOIS HUNTER
+
+
+"This is perfectly appalling!" groaned the unfortunate lady who
+passed, for this adventure, under the name of Miss Manchester.
+
+"Perfectly glorious!" amended her companion.
+
+The elder lady pressed Baedeker to her bosom, and sat down, with some
+abruptness. "I shall have to stop here," she panted, "all the rest of
+my life, and have my meals and my night things sent up. I'm very
+sorry. But I'm certain I shall never be able to go back."
+
+"Don't be absurd, my poor dear; we're absolutely safe," said Virginia.
+"I may be a selfish wretch, but I wouldn't for the world have brought
+you into danger. You needn't go down yet. Let's explore a little
+further. It's easier than turning back. Surely you can go on. Baedeker
+says you can. In ten minutes you'll be at the top of the _col_."
+
+"You may as well tell me that I'll be in my grave. It amounts to the
+same thing," wailed Miss Manchester, who was, in the sphere of happier
+duties, Miss Letitia Portman, and had been the Princess's governess.
+"I can't look down; I can't look up, because I keep thinking of the
+unspeakable things behind. After I get my breath and have become
+resigned to my fate, I _may_ be comparatively comfortable here, for
+some years; but as to stirring either way, there's no use dreaming of
+it."
+
+"Well, you'll make an ideal hermitess," said Virginia. "You've exactly
+the right features for that profession; austere, yet benevolent. But
+you're not really afraid now?"
+
+"Not so much, sitting down," admitted Miss Portman, slowly regaining
+her natural color.
+
+"Do you think then, dear, that you'd relapse and lose your head or
+anything, if I just strolled on alone to the top of the _col_ for the
+view which the guide-book says is so fine, and then came back to
+organize a relief expedition, say in about half an hour or so?"
+
+"No-o," said Miss Portman, "I suppose I can bear it. I may as well
+accustom myself to loneliness, as I am obliged to spend my remaining
+years on this spot. But I'm not at all sure the Duchess would
+approve--"
+
+"You mean Lady Mowbray. She wouldn't mind. She knows I've a good head
+and--physically--a good heart. Besides, I shall have only myself to
+look after. And one really doesn't need a chaperon in going to make an
+early call on a mountain view."
+
+"Dearest Princess, I'm not so sure of that, in regard to this mountain
+view."
+
+"Miss Mowbray, please. You're very subtle. But I really _haven't_ come
+out to look for the Mountain View you refer to. You needn't think it.
+I don't know where his lair is, but it's probably miles from here, and
+if I knew I wouldn't hunt him there. That would be _un peu trop fort_;
+and anyway, I'm inclined to believe that Mother is right about those
+dresses. I shall have such nice ones at Kronburg! So you see you can
+conscientiously give me your blessing and let me go."
+
+"My dear! As if I could have suspected you would search for him! You
+are in Rhaetia not to pursue, but to give an Emperor, who wishes to
+have a certain Princess for his consort, a chance to fall in love with
+herself."
+
+"If he will--if it can be so. But what do Helen Mowbray and Letitia
+Manchester know about the love affairs of emperors and princesses? _Au
+revoir_, dear friend; I'm going. By and by, if you have courage to
+lift your eyes, you'll see me waving a handkerchief flag at the
+rock-corner up there."
+
+Virginia took the alpenstock which she had laid down, and began
+picking her way daintily yet pluckily toward the _col_ which she had
+named as her goal. There was another route to it, leading on to the
+highest peak of the Schneehorn, only to be dared by experienced
+climbers, but the way by which the girl and her companion had set out
+from Alleheiligen nearly four hours ago, was merely fatiguing, never
+dangerous, and Virginia knew that Miss Portman was safe, and not half
+as much frightened as she pretended.
+
+They had started at eight, just as the September sun had begun to draw
+the night chill out of the keen mountain air; and now it was close
+upon twelve. The Princess was hungry.
+
+In Nordeck, the frontier town of Rhaetia as you come in from Germany,
+she had bought ruecksacks for herself and Miss Portman, to be used upon
+just such mountain excursions as this; and to-day the brown canvas
+bags were being tested for the first time. Each ruecksack stored an
+adequate luncheon for its bearer, while on top, secured by straps
+passed across the shoulders, lay a folded wrap to be used in case of
+rain.
+
+Virginia's burden grew heavy as she mounted, though at first its
+weight had seemed trifling. When she had waved her handkerchief at the
+turning, and passed out of Miss Portman's sight, it occurred to her
+that it would be clever to lighten the ruecksack and satisfy her
+appetite at the same time.
+
+The one difficulty was that, in her present position, she could not
+safely unstrap the bag from her shoulders, open it, take out the
+parcel of luncheon, and strap it on again. The way was too narrow, and
+the rocks too slippery, to attempt such liberties; at a short
+distance, however, and only a little out of the path to the _col_, she
+could see a small green plateau, the very place for a rest. But could
+she reach it? The girl stood still, and looked wistfully across.
+
+The place could be gained only by a scramble over a ledge of
+formidable rocks, and climbing in good earnest here and there, yet--if
+the thing could be done at all, it could be done in ten minutes, and
+to come back would be comparatively easy. Virginia was tempted.
+
+"The dear Letitia will be eating her own lunch by this time, and won't
+miss me if my half hour is a long one," she thought. "And anyway, I
+said half an hour or _so_. That means almost anything, when it comes
+to an argument."
+
+Another moment, and the girl had started. She was brave at first;
+but when she had gone half way--a way which was longer and far more
+difficult than she had fancied--she was conscious of a certain
+sinking of the heart. She even felt some qualms of sympathy with
+the sentiments and intentions Miss Portman had expressed, and
+heartily wished herself back by that good lady's side. But it was
+against her principles to be conquered, especially when being
+conquered meant turning coward, or something like it, and she
+scrambled on obstinately, her cheeks burning, her heart thumping,
+and her lips pressed together.
+
+What a grim, remorseless giant the mountain was, and what a mere,
+creeping fly upon its vast shoulder, she! Little cared the old
+mountain that she was a Royal Princess, and that the Emperor who ruled
+the land of which it was part, had the intention of marrying her. It
+would thwart that imperial intention without a qualm, nor turn a
+pebble if the poor little Princess toppled over its cruel shoulder and
+fell in a small, crushed heap, without ever having looked upon the
+face of the Rhaetian Emperor.
+
+Then there came a later moment when, like Miss Portman, whom she had
+so recently laughed to scorn, the Princess felt that she could neither
+go on, nor go back. She was horribly homesick. She wanted her mother
+and the garden at Hampton Court, and would hardly have thrown a glance
+of interest at Leopold if he had appeared before her eyes. There were
+tears in those eyes and she was hating the mountain, and all Rhaetia,
+with her whole strength, when from the mysterious distance round the
+corner of the plateau there came the sound of a man's voice,
+cheerfully yodeling.
+
+Never had a sound been so welcome, or seemed so sweet. It was to
+Virginia as the voice of an angel. "Help!" she called. "Help!" first
+in English, and then, on second thoughts, in Rhaetian.
+
+The yodeling abruptly stopped, and a man appeared round a corner of
+rock beyond the green plateau. The sun shone in his eyes, and he
+shaded them with his hand to look up at her. Virginia stared,
+hopefully, expectantly. A glance photographed a tall figure in a gray
+coat passemoiled with green; a soft green cap of felt; short trousers;
+bare knees; knitted stockings; nailed boots. Thank heaven, no tourist,
+but evidently a mountain man, a guide or a chamois hunter, perhaps; at
+all events, one capable of coming to her rescue. These things she saw
+and thought, in a flash; and then, the brown hand that had shaded his
+eyes, dropped. She caught sight of his face.
+
+It was the Emperor.
+
+A moment ago she had felt that she could look at him with
+indifference, and would a thousand times over prefer a glimpse of the
+dear old house at Hampton Court, with an easy way to reach it. But
+now, everything was changed. There was no longer any danger. He was
+there. He was coming to help her. A Power higher than his had arranged
+this as their first encounter, and would not have taken the trouble to
+bring him to her here, if the meeting were to end in ignominy or
+disaster.
+
+He had run across the plateau; now the nailed boots were ringing on
+rock. She could gaze down upon his head, he was so close to her. He
+was looking up. What a noble face it was! Better than all the
+pictures. And the eyes--
+
+Virginia was suddenly and wildly happy. She could have sung for joy, a
+song of triumph, and losing her head a little she lost her scant
+foothold as well, slipped, tried to hold on, failed, and slid down the
+steeply sloping rock.
+
+If the man had not sprung forward and caught her, she would probably
+have rolled over the narrow ledge on which he stood, and gone bounding
+down, down the mountain side, to her death. But he did catch her, and
+broke the fall, so that she landed lightly beside him, and within an
+ace of being on her knees.
+
+After all, it had been a narrow escape; but the man's arms were so
+strong, and his eyes so brave, that Virginia scarcely realized the
+danger she had passed. It seemed so inevitable now, that he must have
+saved her, that there was room in her thoughts for no dreadful
+might-have-been. Was it not the One Man sent to her by Destiny, when
+if this thing had not been meant, since the hour of her birth, it
+might easily have been some mere tourist, sent by Cook?
+
+[Illustration: _She lost her scant foothold, slipped, tried to hold
+on, failed, and slid down the rock_]
+
+All her life had but led up to this moment. Under the soft hat of
+green felt adorned with the beard of a chamois, was the face she
+had seen in dreams. A dark, austere young face it was, with more of
+Mars than Apollo in its lines, yet to her more desirable than all the
+ideals of all the sculptors since the world began. He was dressed as a
+chamois hunter, and there was nothing in the well-worn, almost shabby
+clothes to distinguish the wearer from the type he chose to represent.
+But as easily might the eagle to whom in her heart she likened him,
+try to pass for a barnyard fowl, as this man for a peasant, so thought
+the Princess.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE EAGLE'S EYRIE
+
+
+So she had gone on her knees to him after all--or almost! She was glad
+her mother did not know. And she hoped that he did not feel the
+pulsing of the blood in her fingers, as he took her hand and lifted
+her to her feet. There was shame in this tempest that swept through
+her veins, because he did not share it; for to her, though this
+meeting was an epoch, to him it was no more than a trivial incident.
+She would have keyed his emotions to hers, if she could, but since she
+had had years of preparation, he a single moment, perhaps she might
+have been consoled for the disparity, could she have read his eyes.
+They said, if she had known: "Is the sky raining goddesses to-day?"
+
+Now, what were to be her first words to him? Dimly she felt, that if
+she were to profit by this wonderful chance to know the man and not
+the Emperor--this chance which might be lost in a few moments, unless
+her wit befriended her--those words should be beyond the common. She
+should be able to marshal her sentences, as a general marshals his
+battalions, with a plan of campaign for each.
+
+A spirit monitor--a match-making monitor--whispered these wise advices
+in her ear; yet she was powerless to profit by them. Like a
+school-girl about to be examined for a scholarship, knowing that all
+the future might depend upon an hour of the present, the dire need to
+be resourceful, to be brilliant, left her dumb.
+
+How many times had she not thought of her first conversation with
+Leopold of Rhaetia, planning the first words, the first looks, which
+must make him know that she was different from any other girl he had
+ever met! Yet here she stood, speechless, epigrams turning tail and
+racing away from her like a troop of playful colts refusing to be
+caught.
+
+And so it was the Emperor who spoke before Virginia's _savoir faire_
+came back.
+
+"I hope you're not hurt?" asked the chamois hunter, in the _patois_
+dear to the heart of Rhaetian mountain folk.
+
+She had been glad before, now she was thankful that she had spent many
+weeks and months in loving study of the tongue which was Leopold's. It
+was not the _metier_ of a chamois hunter to speak English, though the
+Emperor was said to know the language well, and she rejoiced in her
+ability to answer the chamois hunter as he would be answered, keeping
+up the play.
+
+"I am hurt only in the pride that comes before a fall," she replied,
+forcing a laugh. "Thank you many times for saving me."
+
+"I feared that I frightened you, and made you lose your footing," the
+chamois hunter answered.
+
+"I think on the contrary, if it hadn't been for you I should have lost
+my life," said Virginia. "There should be a sign put up on that
+tempting plateau, 'All except suicides beware.'"
+
+"The necessity never occurred to us, my mates and me," returned the
+man in the gray coat, passemoiled with green. "Until you came, gna'
+Fraeulein, no tourist that I know of, has found it tempting."
+
+Virginia's eyes lit with a sudden spark. The spirit monitor--that
+match-making monitor--came back and dared her to a frolic, such a
+frolic, she thought, as no girl on earth had ever had, or would have,
+after her. And she could show this grave, soldier-hero of hers,
+something new in life--something quite new, which it would not harm
+him to know. Then, let come what would out of this adventure, at worst
+she should always have an Olympian episode to remember.
+
+"Until _I_ came?" she caught up his words, standing carefully on the
+spot where he had placed her. "But I am no tourist; I am an explorer."
+
+He lifted level, dark eyebrows, smiling faintly. And when he smiled,
+half his austerity was gone.
+
+So beautiful a girl as this need not rise beyond agreeable
+commonplaceness of mind and speech to please a man; indeed, this
+particular chamois hunter expected no more than good looks, a good
+heart and a nice manner, from women. Yet this beauty bade fair, it
+seemed, to hold surprises in reserve.
+
+"I have brought down noble game to-day," he said to himself; and
+aloud; "I know the Schneehorn well, and love it well. Still I can't
+see what rewards it has for the explorer. Unless, gna' Fraeulein, you
+are a climber or a geologist."
+
+"I'm neither; yet I think I have seen something, a most rare thing,
+I've wanted all my life to see."
+
+The young man's face confessed curiosity. "Indeed? A rare thing that
+lives here on the mountain?"
+
+"I am not sure if it lives here. I should like to find out," replied
+the girl.
+
+"Might one inquire the name of this rare thing?" asked the chamois
+hunter. "Perhaps, if I knew, it might turn out that I could help you
+in the search. But first, if you'd let me lead you to the plateau,
+where I think you were going? Here, your head might still grow a
+little giddy, and it's not well to keep you standing, gna' Fraeulein,
+on such a spot. You've passed all the worst now. The rest is easy."
+
+She gave him her hand, pleasing herself by fancying the act a kind of
+allegory, as she let him lead her to safe and pleasant places, on a
+higher, sunnier level.
+
+"Perhaps the rare thing grows here," the chamois hunter went on,
+looking about the green plateau with a new interest.
+
+"I think not," Virginia answered, shaking her head. "It would thrive
+better nearer the mountain top, in a more hidden place than this. It
+does not love tourists."
+
+"Nor do I, in truth," smiled the chamois hunter.
+
+"You took me for one."
+
+"Pardon, gna' Fraeulein. Not the kind of tourist we both mean."
+
+"Thank you."
+
+"But you have not said if I might help you in your search. This is a
+wild region for a young lady to be exploring in, alone."
+
+"I feel sure," responded the Princess, graciously, "that if you really
+would, you could help me as well as any one in Rhaetia."
+
+"You are kind indeed to say so, though I don't know how I have
+deserved the compliment."
+
+"Did it sound like a compliment? Well, leave it so. I meant, because
+you are at home in these high altitudes; and the rare thing I speak of
+is a plant that grows in high places. It is said to be found only in
+Rhaetian mountains, though I have never heard of any one who has been
+able to track it down."
+
+"Is it our pink Rhaetian edelweiss of which we are so proud? Because
+if it is, and you will trust me, I know exactly where to take you, to
+find it. With my help, you could climb there from here in a few
+moments."
+
+She shook her head again, smiling inscrutably. "Thank you, it's not
+the pink edelweiss. The scientific, the esoteric name, I've promised
+that I'll tell to no one; but the common people in my native country,
+who have heard of it, would call the plant _Edelmann_."
+
+"You have already seen it on the mountain, but not growing?"
+
+"Some chamois hunter, like yourself, had dropped it, perhaps, not
+knowing what its value was. It's a great deal to have had one
+glimpse--worth running into danger for."
+
+"Perhaps, gna' Fraeulein, you don't realize to the full the danger you
+did run. No chance was worth it, believe me."
+
+"You--a chamois hunter--say that."
+
+"But I'm a man. You are a woman; and women should keep to beaten paths
+and safety."
+
+The Princess laughed. "I shouldn't wonder," said she, "if that's a
+Rhaetian theory--a Rhaetian _man's_ theory. I've heard, your Emperor
+holds it."
+
+"Who told you that, gna' Fraeulein?" He gave her a sharp glance, but
+her gray eyes looked innocent of guile, and were therefore at their
+most dangerous.
+
+"Oh, many people have told me. Cats may look at kings, and the most
+insignificant persons may talk of Emperors. I've heard many things of
+yours."
+
+"Good things or bad?"
+
+"No doubt such things as he truly deserves. Now can you guess which?
+But perhaps I would tell you without your guessing, if I were not so
+very, very hungry." She glanced at the pocket of his coat, from which
+protruded a generous hunch of black bread and ham--thrust in probably,
+at the instant when she had called for help. "I can't help seeing that
+you have your luncheon with you. Do you want it all," (she carefully
+ignored the contents of her ruecksack, which she could not well have
+forgotten) "or--would you share it?"
+
+The chamois hunter looked surprised, though not displeased. But then,
+this was his first experience of a feminine explorer, and he quickly
+rose to the occasion.
+
+"There is more, much more bread and bacon where this came from," he
+replied. "Will you be graciously pleased to accept something of our
+best?"
+
+"If _you_ please, then I too shall be pleased," she said. Guiltily,
+she remembered Miss Portman. But the dear Letitia could not be
+considered now. If she were alarmed, she should be well consoled
+later.
+
+"I and some friends of mine have a--a sort of hut round the corner
+from this plateau, and a short distance on," announced the chamois
+hunter, with a gesture that gave the direction. "No woman has ever
+been our guest, but I invite you to visit it and lunch there. Or, if
+you prefer, remain here and in a few minutes I will bring such food as
+we can offer. At best it's not much to boast of. We chamois hunters
+are poor men, living roughly."
+
+The Princess smiled, imprisoning each new thought of mischief which
+flew into her mind, like a trapped bird. "I've heard you're rich in
+hospitality," she said. "I'll go with you to your hut, for it will be
+a chance to prove the saying."
+
+The eyes of the hunter--dark, brilliant and keen as the eagle's to
+which she compared him--pierced hers. "You have no fear?" he asked.
+"You are a young girl, alone, save for me, in a desolate place. For
+all you know, my mates and I may be a band of brigands."
+
+"Baedeker doesn't mention the existence of brigands in these days,
+among the Rhaetian Alps," replied Virginia, with quaint dryness. "I've
+always found him trustworthy. Besides, I've great faith in the
+chivalry of Rhaetian men; and if you knew how hungry I am, you
+wouldn't keep me waiting for talk of brigands. Bread and butter are
+far more to the point."
+
+"Even search for the rare Edelmann may wait?"
+
+"Yes. The Edelmann may wait--on me." The last two words she dared but
+to whisper.
+
+"You must pardon my going first," said the man with the bare brown
+knees. "The way is too narrow for politeness."
+
+"Yet I wish that the peasants at home had such courteous manners as
+yours," Virginia patronized him, prettily. "You Rhaetians need not go
+to court, I see, for lessons in behavior."
+
+"The mountains teach us something, maybe."
+
+"Something of their greatness, which we should all do well to learn.
+But have you never lived in a town?"
+
+"A man of my sort _exists_ in a town. He lives in the mountains." With
+this diplomatic response, the tall figure swung round a corner formed
+by a boulder of rock, and Virginia gave a little cry of surprise. The
+"hut" of which the chamois hunter had spoken was revealed by the turn,
+and it was of an unexpected and striking description. Instead of the
+humble erection of stones and wood which she had counted on, the rocky
+side of the mountain itself had been coaxed to give her sons a
+shelter.
+
+A doorway, and large square openings for windows, had been cut in the
+red-veined, purplish-brown porphyry; while a heavy slab of oak, and
+wooden frames filled full of glittering bottle-glass, protected such
+rooms as might have been hollowed out within, from storm or cold.
+
+Even had Virginia been ignorant of her host's identity, she would have
+been wise enough to guess that here was no Sennhuette, or ordinary
+abode of common peasants, who hunt the chamois for a precarious
+livelihood. The work of hewing out in the solid rock a habitation such
+as this must have cost more than most Rhaetian chamois hunters would
+save in many a year. But her wisdom also counseled her to express no
+further surprise after her first exclamation.
+
+"My mates are away for the time, though they may come back by and by,"
+the man explained, holding the heavy oaken door that she might pass
+into the room within; and though she was not invited to further
+exploration, she was able to see by the several doorways cut in the
+rock walls, that this was not the sole accommodation the strange house
+could boast.
+
+On the rock floor, rugs of deer and chamois skin were spread; in a
+rack of oak, ornamented with splendid antlers and studded with the
+sharp, pointed horns of the chamois, were suspended guns of modern
+make, and brightly polished, formidable hunting knives. The table in
+the center of the room had been carved with admirable skill; and the
+half-dozen chairs were oddly fashioned of stags' antlers, shaped to
+hold fur-cushioned, wooden seats. A carved dresser of black oak held a
+store of the coarse blue, red and green china made by peasants in the
+valley below, through which Virginia had driven yesterday; and these
+bright colored dishes were eked out with platters and great tankards
+of old pewter, while in the deep fireplace a gipsy kettle swung over a
+bed of fragrant pinewood embers.
+
+"This is a delightful place--fit for a king, or even for an Emperor,"
+said Virginia, when the bare-kneed chamois hunter had offered her a
+chair near the fire, and crossed the room to open the closed cupboard
+under the dresser shelves.
+
+He was stooping as she spoke, but at her last words looked round over
+his shoulder.
+
+"We mountain men aren't afraid of a little work--when it's for our own
+comfort," he replied. "And most of the things you see here are
+home-made, during the long winters."
+
+"Then you are all very clever indeed. But this place is interesting;
+tell me, has the Emperor ever been your guest here? I've read--let me
+see, could it have been in a guide-book or in some paper?--that he
+comes occasionally to this northern range of mountains."
+
+"Oh yes, the Emperor has been at our hut several times. He's good
+enough to approve it." Her host answered calmly, laying a loaf of
+black bread, a fine seeded cheese, and a knuckle of ham on the table.
+He then glanced at his guest, expecting her to come forward; but she
+sat still on her throne of antlers, her small feet in their sensible
+mountain boots, daintily crossed under the short tweed skirt.
+
+"I hear he also is a good chamois hunter," she carelessly went on.
+"But that, perhaps, is only the flattery which makes the atmosphere of
+Royalty. No doubt you, for instance, could really give him many
+points in chamois hunting?"
+
+The young man smiled. "The Emperor's not a bad shot."
+
+"For an amateur. But you're a professional. I wager now, that you
+wouldn't for the world change places with the Emperor?"
+
+How the chamois hunter laughed at this, and showed his white teeth!
+There were those, in the towns he scorned, who would have been
+astonished at his light-hearted mirth.
+
+"Change places with the Emperor! Not--unless I were obliged, gna'
+Fraeulein. Not now, at all events," with a complimentary bow and
+glance.
+
+"Thank you. You're quite a courtier. And that reminds me of another
+thing they say of him in my country. The story is, that he dislikes
+the society of women. But perhaps it is that he doesn't understand
+them."
+
+"It is possible, lady. But I never heard that they were so difficult
+of comprehension."
+
+"Ah, that shows how little you chamois hunters have had time to learn.
+Why, we can't even understand ourselves, or know what we're most
+likely to do next. And yet--a very odd thing--we have no difficulty
+in reading one another, and knowing all each other's weaknesses."
+
+"That would seem to say that a man should get a woman to choose his
+wife for him."
+
+"I'm not so sure it would be wise. Yet your Emperor, we hear, will let
+the Chancellor choose his."
+
+"Ah! were you told this also in your country?"
+
+"Yes. For the gossip is that she's an English Princess. Now, what's
+the good of being a powerful Emperor, if he can't even pick out a wife
+to please his own taste?"
+
+"I know nothing about such high matters, gna' Fraeulein. But I fancied
+that Royal folk took wives to please their people rather than
+themselves. It's their duty to marry, you know. And if the lady be of
+Royal blood, virtuous, of the right religion, not too sharp-tempered,
+and pleasant to look at, why--those are the principal things to
+consider, I should suppose."
+
+"So should I _not_ suppose, if I were a man, and--Emperor. I should
+want the pleasure of falling in love."
+
+"Safer not, gna' Fraeulein. He might fall in love with the wrong
+woman." And the chamois hunter looked with half shamed intentness
+into his guest's sweet eyes.
+
+She blushed under his gaze, and was so conscious of the hot color,
+that she retorted at random. "I doubt if he _could_ fall in love. A
+man who would let his Chancellor choose for him! He can have no warm
+blood in his veins."
+
+"There I think you wrong him, lady," the answer came quickly. "The
+Emperor is--a man. But it may be he has found other interests in his
+life more important than woman."
+
+"Bringing down chamois, for instance. You would sympathize there."
+
+"Chamois give good sport. They're hard to find. Harder still to hit
+when you have found them."
+
+"So are the best types of women. Those who, like the chamois (and the
+plant I spoke of) live only in high places. Oh, for the sake of my
+sex, I do hope that some day your Emperor will change his mind--that a
+woman will _make_ him change it."
+
+"Perhaps a woman has--already."
+
+Virginia grew pale. Was she too late? Or was this a concealed
+compliment which the chamois hunter did not guess she had the clue to
+find? She could not answer. The silence between the two became
+electrical, and the young man broke it, at last, with some slight
+signs of confusion.
+
+"It's a pity," said he, "that our Emperor can't hear you. He might be
+converted to your views."
+
+"Or he might clap me into prison for _lese majeste_."
+
+"He wouldn't do that, gna' Fraeulein--if he's anything like me."
+
+"Anything like you? Why, now you put me in mind of it, he's not unlike
+you--in appearance, I mean, judging by his portraits."
+
+"You have seen his portraits?"
+
+"Yes, I've seen some. I really think you must be a little like him,
+only browner and taller, perhaps. Yet I'm glad that you're a chamois
+hunter and not an Emperor--almost as glad as _you_ can be."
+
+"Will you tell me why, lady?"
+
+"Oh, for one reason, because I couldn't possibly ask him, if he were
+here in your place, what I'm going to ask of you. You've very kindly
+laid the bread and ham ready, but you forgot to cut them."
+
+"A thousand pardons. Our talk has set my wits wool-gathering. My mind
+should have been on my manners, instead of on such far off things as
+Emperors and their love affairs."
+
+He began hewing at the big loaf as if it were an enemy to be
+conquered. And there were few in Rhaetia who had ever seen those dark
+eyes so bright.
+
+"I like ham and bread cut thin, please," said the Princess.
+"There--that's better. I'll sit here if you'll bring the things to me,
+for I find that I'm tired; and you are very kind."
+
+"A draught of our Rhaetian beer will do you more good than anything,"
+suggested the hunter, taking up the plate of bread and ham he had
+tried hard to cut according to her taste, placing it in her lap and
+going back to draw a tankard of foaming amber liquid from a quaint
+hogshead in a corner.
+
+But Virginia waved the froth-crowned pewter away with a smile and a
+pretty gesture. "My head has already proved not strong enough for your
+mountains. I'm sure it isn't strong enough for your beer. Have you
+some nice cold water?"
+
+The young man laughed and shrugged his shoulders. "Our water here is
+fit only for the outside of the body," he explained. "To us, that's no
+great deprivation, as we're all true Rhaetians for our beer. But now,
+on your account, I'm sorry."
+
+"Perhaps you have some milk?" suggested Virginia. "I love milk. And I
+could scarcely count the cows, they were so many, as I came up the
+mountain from Alleheiligen."
+
+"It's true there are plenty of cows about," replied her host, "and I
+could easily catch one. But if I fetch the beast here, can you milk
+it?"
+
+"Dear me, no; surely you, a great strong man, would never stand by and
+let a weak girl do that? Oh, I almost wish I hadn't thought of the
+milk, if I'm not to have it. I long for it so much."
+
+"You shall have the milk, lady," returned the chamois hunter. "I--"
+
+"How good you are!" exclaimed the Princess. "It will be more than nice
+of you. But--I don't want you to think that I'm giving you all this
+trouble for nothing. Here's something just to show that I appreciate
+it; and--to remember me by."
+
+She would not look up, though she longed to see what expression the
+dark face wore, but kept her eyes upon her hand, from which she slowly
+withdrew a ring. It fitted tightly, for she had had it made years
+ago, before her slender fingers had finished growing. When at last
+she had pulled off the jeweled circlet of gold, she held it up,
+temptingly.
+
+"What I have done, and anything I may yet do, is a pleasure," said the
+hunter. "But after all you have learned little of Rhaetia, if you
+think that we mountain men ever take payment from those to whom we've
+been able to show hospitality."
+
+"Ah, but I'm not talking of payment," pleaded the Princess. "I wish
+only to be sure that you mayn't forget the first woman who, you tell
+me, has ever entered this door."
+
+The young man looked at the door, not at the girl. "It is impossible
+that I should forget," said he, almost stiffly.
+
+"Still, it will hurt me if you refuse my ring," went on Virginia.
+"Please at least come and see what it's like."
+
+He obeyed, and as she still held up the ring, he took it from her that
+he might examine it more closely.
+
+"The crest of Rhaetia!" he exclaimed, as his eyes fell upon a shield
+of black and green enamel, set with small, but exceedingly brilliant
+white diamonds. "How curious. I've been wondering that you should
+speak our language so well--"
+
+"It's not curious at all, really, but very simple," said Virginia.
+"Now"--with a faint tremor in her voice--"press the spring on the left
+side of the shield, and when you've seen what's underneath, I think
+you'll feel that you can't loyally refuse to accept my little
+offering."
+
+The bronze forefinger found a pin's point protuberance of gold, and
+pressing sharply, the shield flew up to reveal a tiny but exquisitely
+painted miniature of Leopold the First of Rhaetia.
+
+The chamois hunter stared at it, and did not speak, but the blood came
+up to his brown forehead.
+
+"You're surprised?" asked Virginia.
+
+"I am surprised because I'd been led to suppose that you thought
+poorly of our Emperor."
+
+"_Poorly!_ Now what could have given you that impression?"
+
+"Why, you--made fun of his opinion of women."
+
+"Who am I, pray, to 'make fun' of an Emperor's opinion, even in a
+matter he would consider so unimportant? On the contrary, I confess
+that I, like most other girls I know, am deeply interested in your
+great Leopold, if only because I--we--would be charitably minded and
+teach him better. As for the ring, they sell things more or less of
+this sort, in several of the Rhaetian cities I've passed through on my
+way here. Didn't you know that?"
+
+"No, lady, I have never seen one like it."
+
+"And as for my knowledge of Rhaetian, I've always been interested in
+the study of languages. Languages are fascinating to conquer; and
+then, the literature of your country is so splendid, one must be able
+to read it at first hand. Now, you'll have to say 'yes' to the ring,
+won't you, and keep it for your Emperor's sake, if not for mine?"
+
+"May I not keep it for yours as well?"
+
+"Yes, if you please. And--about the milk?"
+
+The chamois hunter caught up a gaudy jug, and without further words,
+went out. When he had gone, the Princess rose and, taking the knife he
+had used to cut the bread and ham, she kissed the handle on the place
+where his fingers had grasped it. "You're a very silly girl, Virginia,
+my dear," she said. "But oh, how you do love him. How he is _worth_
+loving, and--what a glorious hour you're having!"
+
+For ten minutes she sat alone, perhaps more; then the door was flung
+open and her host flung himself in, no longer with the gay air which
+had sat like a cloak upon him, but hot and sulky, the jug in his hand
+as empty as when he had gone out.
+
+"I have failed," he said gloomily. "I have failed, though I promised
+you the milk."
+
+"Couldn't you find a cow?" asked Virginia.
+
+"Oh yes, I found one, more than one, and caught them too. I even
+forced them to stand still, and grasped them by their udders, but not
+a drop of milk would come down. Abominable brutes! I would gladly have
+killed them, but that would have given you no milk."
+
+For her life, the Princess could not help laughing, his air was so
+desperate. If only those cows could have known who he was, and
+appreciated the honor!
+
+"Pray, pray don't mind," she begged. "You have done more than most men
+could have done. After all, I'll have a glass of Rhaetian beer with
+you, to drink your health and that of your Emperor. I wonder by the by
+if he, who prides himself on doing all things well, can milk a cow?"
+
+"If not, he should learn," said the chamois hunter, viciously.
+"There's no knowing, it seems, when one may need the strangest
+accomplishments, and be humiliated for lack of them."
+
+"No, not humiliated," Virginia assured him. "It's always instructive
+to find out one's limitations. And you have been most good to me. See,
+while you were gone, I ate the slice of bread and ham you cut, and
+never did a meal taste better. Now, you must have many things to do,
+which I've made you leave undone. I've trespassed on you too long."
+
+"Indeed, lady, it seems scarcely a moment since you came, and I have
+no work to do," the chamois hunter insisted.
+
+"But I've a friend waiting for me, on the mountain," the Princess
+confessed. "Luckily, she had her lunch and will have eaten it, and her
+guide-book must have kept her happy for a while; but by this time I'm
+afraid she's anxious, and would be coming in search of me, if she
+dared to stir. I must go. Will you tell me by what name I shall
+remember my--rescuer, when I recall this day?"
+
+"They named me--for the Emperor."
+
+"They were wise. It suits you. Then I shall think of you as Leopold.
+Leopold--what? But no, don't tell me the other name. It _can't_ be
+good enough to match the first; for do you know, I admire the name of
+Leopold more than any other I've ever heard? So, Leopold, will you
+shake hands for good-by?"
+
+The strong hand came out eagerly, and pressed hers. "Thank you, gna'
+Fraeulein; but it's not good-by yet. You must let me help you back by
+the way you came, and down the mountain."
+
+"Will you really? I dared not ask as much, for fear, in spite of your
+kind hospitality, you were--like your noble namesake--a hater of
+women."
+
+"That's too hard a word, even for an Emperor, lady. While as for me,
+if I ever said to myself, 'no woman can be of much good to a man as a
+real companion,' I'm ready to unsay it."
+
+"I'm glad! Then you shall come with me, and help me; and you shall
+help my friend, who is so good and so strong-minded that perhaps she
+may make you think even better of our sex. If you will, you shall be
+our guide down to Alleheiligen, where we've been staying at the inn
+since last night. Besides all that, if you wish to be _very_ good, you
+may carry our cloaks and ruecksacks, which seem so heavy to us, but
+will be nothing for your strong shoulders."
+
+The face of the chamois hunter changed and changed again with such
+amused appreciation of her demands, that Virginia turned her head
+away, lest she should laugh, and thus let him guess that she held the
+key to the inner situation.
+
+His willingness to become a cowherd, and now a beast of burden for the
+foreign lady he had seen, and her friend whom he had not seen, was
+indubitably genuine. He was pleased with the adventure--if not as
+pleased as his initiated companion. For the next few hours the hunter
+was free, it seemed. He said that he had been out since early dawn,
+and had had good luck. Later, he had returned to the hut for a meal
+and a rest, while his friends went down to the village on business
+which concerned them all. As they had not come back, they were
+probably amusing themselves, and when he had given the ladies all the
+assistance in his power, he would join them.
+
+The way down was easy to Virginia, with his hand to help her when it
+was needed, and she had never been so happy in her twenty years. But,
+after all, she asked herself, as they neared the place where she had
+left Miss Portman, what had she accomplished? What impression was she
+leaving? Would this radiant morning of adventure do her good or harm
+with Leopold when Miss Mowbray should meet him later, in some
+conventional way, through letters of introduction to Court dignitaries
+at Kronburg?
+
+While she wondered, his voice broke into her questionings.
+
+"I hope, gna' Fraeulein," the chamois hunter was saying, almost shyly
+and as if by an effort, "that you won't go away from our country
+thinking that we Rhaetians are so cold of heart and blood as you've
+seemed to fancy. We men of the mountains may be different from others
+you have seen, but we're not more cold. The torrent of our blood may
+sleep for a season under ice, but when the spring comes--as it
+must--and the ice melts, then the torrent gushes forth the more hotly
+because it has not spent its strength before."
+
+"I shall remember your words," said the Princess, "for--my journal of
+Rhaetia. And now, here's my poor friend. I shall have to make her a
+thousand excuses."
+
+For her journal of Rhaetia! For a moment the man looked wistful, as if
+it were a pain to him that he would have no other place in her
+thoughts, nor time to win it, since there sat a lady in a tourist's
+hat, and eye-glasses, and the episode was practically closed. He
+looked too, as if there was something he would add to his last words
+if he could; but Miss Portman saw the two advancing figures, and
+shrieked a shrill cry of thanksgiving.
+
+"Oh, I have been so _dreadfully_ anxious!" she groaned, "What _has_
+kept you? Have you had an accident? Thank heaven you're here. I began
+to give up hope of ever seeing you again alive."
+
+"Perhaps you never would, if it hadn't been for the help of this good
+and brave new friend of mine," said Virginia, hurrying into
+explanations. "I got into dreadful difficulties up there; it was much
+worse than I thought, but Leopold--" (Miss Portman started, stared
+with her near-sighted eyes at the tall, brown man with bare knees;
+colored, gasped, and swallowed hard after a quick glance at her
+Princess.) "Leopold happened to be near, came to my help and saved me.
+Wasn't it providential? Oh, I assure you, Leopold is a monarch--of
+chamois hunters. Give him your cloak and ruecksack to carry with mine,
+dear Miss Manchester. He's kind enough to say that he'll guide us all
+the way down to Alleheiligen, and I'm glad to accept his service."
+
+Miss Portman--a devout Royalist, and firm believer in the right of
+kings--grew crimson, her nose especially, as it invariably did at
+moments of strong emotion.
+
+The Emperor of Rhaetia, here, caught and trapped, like Pegasus bound
+to the plow, and forced to carry luggage as if he were a common
+porter--worst of all, _her_ insignificant, twice wretched luggage!
+
+She would have protested if she had dared; but she did not dare, and
+was obliged to see that imperial form--unmistakably imperial, it
+seemed to her, though masquerading in humble guise--loaded down with
+her ruecksack and her large golf cape, with goloshes in the pocket.
+
+Crushed under the magnitude of her discovery, dazzled by the
+surprising brilliance of the Princess's capture, stupefied by the fear
+of saying or doing the wrong thing and ruining her idol's bizarre
+triumph, poor Miss Portman staggered as Virginia helped her to her
+feet.
+
+"Why, you're cramped with sitting so long!" cried the Princess. "Be
+careful! But Leopold will give you his arm. Leopold will take you
+down, won't you, Leopold?"
+
+And the Imperial Eagle, who had hoped for better things, meekly
+allowed another link to be added to his chain.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+LEO VERSUS LEOPOLD
+
+
+"Ach, Himmel!" exclaimed Frau Yorvan; and "Ach Himmel!" she exclaimed
+again, her voice rising to a wail, with a frantic uplifting of the
+hands.
+
+The Grand Duchess grew pale, for the apple-cheeked lady suddenly
+exhibited these alarming signs of emotion while passing a window of
+the private dining-room. Evidently some scene of horror was being
+enacted outside; and--Virginia and Miss Portman had been away for many
+hours.
+
+It was the time for tea in England, for coffee in Rhaetia; Frau Yorvan
+had just brought in coffee for one, with heart-shaped, sugared cakes,
+which would have appealed more poignantly to the Grand Duchess's
+appetite, if the absent ones had been with her to share them.
+Naturally, at the good woman's outburst, her imagination instantly
+pictured disaster to the one she loved.
+
+"What--oh, what is it you see?" she implored, her heart leaping, then
+falling. But for once, the courtesy due to an honored guest was
+forgotten, and the distracted Frau Yorvan fled from the room without
+giving an answer.
+
+Half paralyzed with dread of what she might have to see, the Grand
+Duchess tottered to the window. Was there--yes, there was a
+procession, coming down the hilly street that led to town from the
+mountain. Oh, horror upon horror! They were perhaps bringing Virginia
+down, injured or dead, her beautiful face crushed out of recognition.
+Yet no--there was Virginia herself, the central figure in the
+procession. Thank Heaven, it could be nothing worse than an accident
+to poor, dear Miss Portman--But there was Miss Portman too; and a very
+tall, bronzed peasant man, loaded with cloaks and ruecksacks, headed
+the band, while the girl and her ex-governess followed after.
+
+Unspeakably relieved, yet still puzzled and vaguely alarmed, the Grand
+Duchess threw up the window overlooking the little village square. But
+as she strove to attract the truants' attention by waving her hand
+and crying out a welcome or a question, whichever should come first,
+the words were arrested on her lips. What could be the matter with
+Frau Yorvan?
+
+The stout old landlady popped out through the door like a Jack out of
+his box, on a very stiff spring, flew to the overloaded peasant, and
+almost rudely elbowing Miss Portman aside, began distractedly bobbing
+up and down, tearing at the bundle of ruecksacks and cloaks. Her
+inarticulate cries ascended like incense to the Grand Duchess at the
+open window, adding much to the lady's intense bewilderment.
+
+"What has that man been doing?" demanded the Grand Duchess in a loud,
+firm voice; but nobody answered, for the very good reason that nobody
+heard. The attention of all those below was entirely taken up with
+their own concerns.
+
+"Pray, mein frau, let him carry our things indoors," Virginia was
+insisting, while the tall man stood among the three women, motionless,
+but apparently a prey to conflicting emotions. If the Grand Duchess
+had not been obsessed with a certain idea, which was growing in her
+mind, she must have seen that his dark face betrayed a mingling of
+amusement, impatience, annoyance, and boyish mischief. He looked like
+a man who had somehow stumbled into a false position from which it
+would be difficult to escape with dignity, yet which he half enjoyed.
+Torn between a desire to laugh, and fly into a rage with the officious
+landlady, he frowned warningly at Frau Yorvan, smiled at the Princess,
+and divided his energies between quick, secret gestures intended for
+the eyes of the Rhaetian woman, and endeavors to unburden himself in
+his own time and way, of the load he carried.
+
+With each instant the perturbation of the Grand Duchess grew. Why did
+the man not speak out what he had to say? Why did the landlady first
+strive to seize the things from his back, then suddenly shrink as if
+in fear, leaving the tall fellow to his own devices? Ah, but that was
+a terrible look he gave her at last--the poor, good woman! Perhaps he
+was a brigand! And the Grand Duchess remembered tales she had
+read--tales of fearful deeds, even in these modern days, done in wild,
+mountain fastnesses, and remote villages such as Alleheiligen. Not in
+Rhaetia, perhaps; but then, there was no reason why they should not
+happen in Rhaetia, at a place like this. And if there were not
+something evil, something to be dreaded about this big, dark-browed
+fellow, why had Frau Yorvan uttered that exclamation of frantic dismay
+at sight of him, and rushed like a madwoman out of the house?
+
+It occurred to the Grand Duchess that the man must be some notorious
+desperado of the mountains, who had obtained her daughter's
+confidence, or got her and Miss Portman into his power. But, she
+remembered, fortunately some or all of the mysterious gentlemen
+stopping at the inn, had returned and were at this moment assembled in
+the room adjoining hers. The Grand Duchess resolved that, at the first
+sign of insolent behavior or threatening on the part of the luggage
+carrier, these noblemen should be promptly summoned by her to the
+rescue of her daughter.
+
+Her anxiety was even slightly allayed at this point in her
+reflections, by the thought (for she had not quite outgrown an innate
+love of romance) that the Emperor himself might go to Virginia's
+assistance. His friends were in the next room, having come down from
+the mountain about noon, and there seemed little doubt that he was
+among them. If he had not already looked out of his window, drawn by
+the landlady's excited voice, the Grand Duchess resolved that, in the
+circumstances, it was her part as a mother to make him look out. She
+had promised to help Virginia, and she would help her by promoting a
+romantic first encounter.
+
+In a penetrating voice, which could not fail to reach the ears of the
+men next door, or the actors in the scene below, she adjured her
+daughter in English.
+
+This language was the safest to employ, she decided hastily, because
+the brigand with the ruecksacks would not understand, while the flower
+of Rhaetian chivalry in the adjoining room were doubtless acquainted
+with all modern languages.
+
+"Helen!" she screamed, loyally remembering in her excitement,
+the part she was playing, "Helen, where did you come across that
+ferocious-looking ruffian? Can't you see he intends to steal your
+ruecksacks, or--or blackmail you, or something? Is there no man-servant
+about the place whom the landlady can call to help her?"
+
+All four of the actors on the little stage glanced up, aware for the
+first time of an audience; and had the Grand Duchess's eyes been
+younger, she might have been still further puzzled by the varying and
+vivid expressions of their faces. But she saw only that the
+dark-browed peasant man, who had glared so haughtily at poor Frau
+Yorvan, was throwing off his burden with haste and roughness.
+
+"I do hope he hasn't already stolen anything of value," cried the
+Grand Duchess. "Better not let him go until you've looked into your
+ruecksacks. Remember that silver drinking cup you _would_ take with
+you--"
+
+She paused, not so much in deference to Virginia's quick reply, as in
+amazement at Frau Yorvan's renewed gesticulations. Was it possible
+that the woman understood more English than her guests supposed, and
+feared lest the brigand--perhaps equally well instructed--might seek
+immediate revenge? His bare knees alone were evidence against his
+character in the eyes of the Grand Duchess. They gave him a brazen,
+abandoned air; and a young man who cultivated so long a space between
+stockings and trousers might be capable of any crime.
+
+"Oh, Mother, you're very much mistaken," Virginia was protesting.
+"This man is a great friend of mine, and has saved my life. You must
+thank him. If it were not for him, I might never have come back to
+you."
+
+At last the meaning of her words penetrated to the intelligence of the
+Grand Duchess, through an armor of misapprehension.
+
+"He saved your life?" she echoed. "Oh, then you have been in danger!
+Heaven be thanked for your safety--and also that the man's not likely
+to know English, or I should never forgive myself for what I've said.
+Here is my purse, dearest. Catch it as I throw, and give it to him
+just as it is. There are at least twenty pounds in it, and I only wish
+I could afford more. But what is the matter, my child? You look ready
+to faint."
+
+As she began to speak, she snatched from a desk at which she had been
+writing, a netted silver purse. But while she paused, waiting for
+Virginia to hold out her hands, the girl forbade the contemplated act
+of generosity with an imploring gesture.
+
+"He will accept no reward for what he has done, except our thanks; and
+those I give him once again," the girl answered. She then turned to
+the chamois hunter, and made him a present of her hand, over which he
+bowed with the air of a courtier rather than the rough manner of a
+peasant. And the Grand Duchess still hoped that the Emperor might be
+at the window, as really it was a pretty picture, and, it seemed to
+her, presented a pleasing phase of Virginia's character.
+
+She eagerly awaited her daughter's coming, and having lingered at the
+window to watch with impatience the rather ceremonious leave-taking,
+she hastened to the door of the improvised sitting-room to welcome the
+mountaineers, as they returned to tell their adventures.
+
+"My darling, who do you think was listening and looking from the
+window next ours?" she breathlessly inquired, when she had embraced
+her newly-restored treasure--for the secret of the adjoining room was
+too good to keep until questions had been put. "Can't you guess? I'm
+surprised at that, since you were so sure last night of a certain
+person's presence not far away. Why, who but your Emperor himself!"
+
+The Princess laughed happily, and kissed her mother's pink cheek.
+"Then he must have an astral body," said she, "since one or the other
+has been with me all day; and it was to him--or his Doppelgaenger--that
+you offered your purse to make up for accusing him of stealing!"
+
+The Grand Duchess sat down; not so much because she wished to assume a
+sitting position, as because she experienced a sudden, uncontrollable
+weakness of the knees. For a moment she was unable to speak, or even
+to speculate; but one vague thought did trail dimly across her brain.
+"Heavens! what have I done to him? And maybe some day he will be my
+son-in-law."
+
+Meanwhile, Frau Yorvan--a strangely subdued Frau Yorvan--had
+droopingly followed the chamois hunter into the inn.
+
+"My dear old friend, you must learn not to lose that well-meaning head
+of yours," said he in the hall.
+
+"Oh, but, your Majesty--"
+
+"Now, now, must I remind you again that his Majesty is at Kronburg,
+or Petersbrueck, or some other of his residences, when I am at
+Alleheiligen? This time I believe he's at the Baths of Melina. If you
+can't remember these things, I fear I shall be driven away from here,
+to look for chamois elsewhere than on the Schneehorn."
+
+"Indeed, I will not be so stupid again, your--I mean, I will do my
+very best not to forget. But never before have I been so tried. To see
+your high-born, imperial shoulders loaded down as if--as if you had
+been a common Gepaecktraeger for tourists, instead of--"
+
+"A chamois hunter. Don't distress yourself, good friend. I've had a
+day of excellent sport."
+
+"For that I am thankful. But to see your--to see you coming back in
+such an unsuitable way, has given me a weakness of the heart. How can
+I order myself civilly to those ladies, who have--"
+
+"Who have given peasant Leopold some hours of amusement. Be more civil
+than ever, for my sake. And by the way, can you tell me the names of
+the ladies? That one of them--a companion, I judge--is a Miss
+Manchester, I have heard in conversation; but the others--"
+
+"They are mother and daughter--sir. The elder, who in her ignorance,
+cried out such treasonable abominations from the window (as I could
+tell even with the little English I have picked up) is Lady Mowbray. I
+have seen the name written down; and I know how to speak it because I
+have heard it pronounced by the companion, the Mees Manchester. The
+younger--the beautiful one--is also a Mees--and the mother calls her
+Helene. They talk together in English, also in French, and though I
+have so few words of either language, I could tell that London was
+mentioned between them more than once, while I waited on the table.
+Besides, it is painted in black letters on their traveling boxes."
+
+"You did not expect their arrival?"
+
+"Oh, no, sir. Had they written beforehand, at this season, when I
+generally expect to be honored by your presence, I should have
+answered that the house was full--or closed--or any excuse which
+occurred to me, to keep strangers away. But none have ever before
+arrived so late in the year, and I was taken all unawares when my son
+Alois drove them up last night. He did not know you had arrived, as
+the papers spoke so positively of your visit to the Baths; and I could
+not send travelers away; you have bidden me not to do so, once they
+are in the house. But these ladies are here but for a day or two more,
+on their way to Kronburg for a visit; and I thought--"
+
+"You did quite right, Frau Yorvan. Has my messenger come up with
+letters?"
+
+"Yes, your--yes, sir. Just now also a telegram was brought by another
+messenger, who came and left in a great hurry."
+
+The chamois hunter shrugged his shoulders, and sighed an impatient
+sigh. "It's too much to expect that I should be left in peace for a
+single day, even here," he muttered, as he went toward the stairs.
+
+To reach Frau Yorvan's best sitting-room (selfishly occupied,
+according to one opinion, by four men absent all day on a mountain),
+he was obliged to pass by a door through which issued unusual sounds.
+So unusual were they, that the Emperor paused.
+
+Some one was striking the preliminary chords of a volkslied on his
+favorite instrument, a Rhaetian variation of the zither. As he
+lingered, listening, a voice began to sing--ah, but a voice!
+
+Softly seductive it was as the cooing of a dove in the spring, to its
+mate; pure as the purling of a brook among meadow flowers; rich as the
+deep notes of a nightingale in his passion for the moon. And for the
+song, it was the heart-breaking cry of a young Rhaetian peasant who,
+lying near death in a strange land, longs for one ray of sunrise light
+on the bare mountain tops of the homeland, more earnestly than for his
+first sight of an unknown Heaven.
+
+The man outside the door did not move until the voice was still. He
+knew well, though he could not see, who the singer had been. It was
+impossible for the plump lady at the window, or the thin lady with the
+glasses, to own a voice like that. It was the girl's. She only, of the
+trio, could so exhale her soul in the very perfume of sound. For to
+his fancy, it was like hearing the fragrance of a rose breathed aloud.
+"I have heard an angel," he said to himself. But in reality he had
+heard Princess Virginia of Baumenburg-Drippe, showing off her very
+prettiest accomplishment, in the childish hope that the man she loved
+might hear.
+
+Leopold of Rhaetia had heard many golden voices--golden in more senses
+of the word than one--but never before, it seemed to him, a voice
+which so stirred his spirit with pain that was bitter-sweet, pleasure
+as blinding as pain, and a vague yearning for something beautiful
+which he had never known.
+
+If he had been asked what that something was, he could not, if he
+would, have told; for a man cannot explain that part of himself which
+he has never even tried to understand.
+
+Before he had moved many paces from the door, the lovely voice, no
+longer plaintive, but swelling to brilliant triumph, broke into the
+national anthem of Rhaetia--warlike, inspiring as the Marseillaise,
+but wilder, calling her sons to face death singing, in the defense.
+
+"She's an English girl, yet she sings our Rhaetian music as no
+Rhaetian woman I have ever heard, can sing it," he told himself,
+slowly passing on to his own door. "She is a new type to me. I don't
+think there can be many like her. A pity that she is not a Princess,
+or else--that Leopold the Emperor and Leo the chamois hunter are not
+two men. Still, the chamois hunter of Rhaetia would be no match for
+Miss Mowbray of London, so the weights would balance in the scales as
+unevenly as now."
+
+He gave a sigh, and a smile that lifted his eyebrows. Then he opened
+the door of his sitting-room, to forget among certain documents which
+urged the importance of an immediate return to duty, the difference
+between Leopold and Leo, the difference between women and a Woman.
+
+"Good-by to our mountains, to-morrow morning," he said to his three
+chosen companions. "Hey for work and Kronburg."
+
+_She_ was going to Kronburg in a few days, according to Frau Yorvan.
+But Kronburg was not Alleheiligen; and Leopold, the Emperor, was not,
+at his palace, in the way of meeting tourists--or even "explorers."
+
+"She'll never know to whom she gave her ring," he thought with the
+dense innocence of a man who has studied all books save women's looks.
+"And I'll never know who gives her a plain gold one for the finger on
+which she once wore this."
+
+But in the next room, divided from him by a single wall, sat Princess
+Virginia of Baumenburg-Drippe.
+
+"When we meet again at Kronburg, he mustn't dream that I knew all the
+time," she was saying to herself. "That would spoil everything--just
+at first. Yet oh, some day how I should love to confess all--all! Only
+I couldn't possibly confess except to a man who would excuse, or
+perhaps even approve, because he had learned to love me--well. And
+what shall I do, how shall I bear my life now I've seen him, if that
+day should never come?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+NOT IN THE PROGRAM
+
+
+Letters of introduction for Lady Mowbray and her daughter to
+influential and interesting persons attached to the Rhaetian Court,
+were necessarily a part of the wonderful plan connected in the English
+garden, though they were among the details thought out afterwards.
+
+The widow of the Hereditary Grand Duke of Baumenburg-Drippe was
+reported in the journals of various countries, to be traveling with
+the Princess Virginia and a small suite, through Canada and the United
+States; and fortunately for the success of the innocent plot, the
+Grand Duchess had spent so many years of seclusion in England, and
+had, even in her youth, met so few Rhaetians, that there was little
+fear of detection. Her objections to Virginia's scheme for winning a
+lover instead of thanking Heaven quietly for a mere husband, were
+based on other grounds, but Virginia had overcome them, and
+eventually the Grand Duchess had proved not only docile, but
+positively fertile in expedient.
+
+The choosing of the borrowed flag under which to sail had at first
+been a difficulty. It was pointed out by a friend taken into their
+confidence (a lady whose husband had been ambassador to Rhaetia), that
+a real name, and a name of some dignity, must be adopted, if proper
+introductions were to be given. And it was the Grand Duchess who
+suggested the name of Mowbray, on the plea that she had, in a way, the
+right to annex it.
+
+The mother of the late Duke of Northmoreland had been a Miss Mowbray,
+and there were still several eminently respectable, inconspicuous
+Mowbray cousins. Among these cousins was a certain Lady Mowbray, widow
+of a baron of that ilk, and possessing a daughter some years older and
+innumerable degrees plainer than the Princess Virginia.
+
+To this Lady Mowbray the Grand Duchess had gone out of her way to be
+kind in Germany, long years ago, when she was a very grand personage
+indeed, and Lady Mowbray comparatively a nobody. The humble connection
+had expressed herself as unspeakably grateful, and the two had kept
+up a friendship ever since. Therefore, when the difficulty of realism
+in a name presented itself, the Grand Duchess thought of Lady Mowbray
+and Miss Helen Mowbray. They were about to leave England for India,
+but had not yet left; and the widow of the Baron was flattered as well
+as amused by the romantic confidence reposed in her by the widow of
+the Grand Duke. She was delighted to lend her name, and her daughter's
+name; and who could blame the lady if her mind rushed forward to the
+time when she should have earned gratitude from the young Empress of
+Rhaetia? for of course she had no doubt of the way in which the
+adventure would end.
+
+As for the wife of the late British Ambassador to the Rhaetian Court,
+she was not sentimental and therefore was not quite as comfortably
+sure of the sequel. As far as concerned her own part in the plot,
+however, she felt safe enough; for though she was, after a fashion,
+deceiving her old acquaintances at Kronburg, she was not foisting
+adventuresses upon them; on the contrary, she was giving them a chance
+of entertaining angels unawares, by sending them letters to ladies who
+were in reality the Grand Duchess of Baumenburg-Drippe and the
+Princess Virginia.
+
+The four mysterious gentlemen left Alleheiligen the day after
+Virginia's encounter with the chamois hunter; but the Mowbrays
+lingered on. The adventure had begun so gloriously that the girl
+feared an anti-climax for the next step. Though she longed for the
+second meeting, she dreaded it as well, and put off the chance of it
+from day to day. The stay of the Mowbrays at Alleheiligen lengthened
+into a week, and when they left at last, it was only just in time for
+the great festivities at Kronburg, which were to celebrate the
+Emperor's thirty-first birthday, an event enhanced in national
+importance by the fact that the eighth anniversary of his coronation
+would fall on the same date.
+
+On the morning of the journey, the Grand Duchess had neuralgia and was
+frankly cross.
+
+"I don't see after all, what you've accomplished so far by this mad
+freak which has dragged us across Europe," she said, fretfully, in the
+train which they had taken at a town twenty miles from Alleheiligen.
+"We've perched on a mountain top, like the Ark on Ararat, for a week,
+freezing; the adventure you had there is only a complication. What
+have we to show for our trouble--unless incipient rheumatism?"
+
+Virginia had nothing to show for it; at least, nothing that she meant
+to show, even to her mother; but in a little scented bag of silk which
+lay next her heart, was folded a bit of blotting-paper. If you looked
+at its reflection in a mirror, you saw, written twice over in a firm,
+individual hand, the name "Helen Mowbray."
+
+The Princess had found it on a table in the best sitting-room, after
+Frau Yorvan had made that room ready for its new occupants. Therefore
+she loved Alleheiligen: therefore she thought with redoubled
+satisfaction of her visit there.
+
+To learn her full name, he must have thought it worth while to make
+inquiries. It had lingered in his thoughts, or he would not have
+scrawled it twice on some bit of paper--since destroyed no doubt--in a
+moment of idle dreaming.
+
+Through most of her life, Virginia had known the lack of money; but
+she would not have exchanged a thousand pounds for the contents of
+that little bag.
+
+Hohenlangenwald is the name of the House from which the rulers of
+Rhaetia sprang; therefore everything in the beautiful city of Kronburg
+which can take the name of Hohenlangenwald, has taken it; and it was
+at the Hohenlangenwald Hotel that a suite of rooms had been engaged
+for Lady Mowbray.
+
+The travelers broke the long journey at Melinabad; and Virginia's
+study of trains had timed their arrival in Kronburg for the morning of
+the birthday eve, early enough for the first ceremony of the
+festivities; the unveiling by the Emperor of a statue of Rhaetia in
+the Leopoldplatz, directly in front of the Hohenlangenwald Hotel.
+
+Virginia looked forward to seeing the Emperor from her own windows; as
+according to her calculation, there was an hour to spare; but at the
+station they were told by the driver of the carriage sent to meet
+them, that the crowd in the streets being already very great, he
+feared it would be a tedious undertaking to get through. Some of the
+thoroughfares were closed for traffic; he would have to go by a
+roundabout way; and in any case could not reach the main entrance of
+the hotel. At best, he would have to deposit his passengers and their
+luggage at a side entrance, in a narrow street.
+
+As the carriage started, from far away came a burst of martial music;
+a military band playing the national air which the chamois hunter had
+heard a girl sing, behind a closed door at Alleheiligen.
+
+The shops were all shut--would be shut until the day after to-morrow,
+but their windows were unshuttered and gaily decorated, to add to the
+brightness of the scene. Strange old shops displayed the marvelous,
+chased silver, the jeweled weapons and gorgeous embroideries from the
+far eastern provinces of Rhaetia; splendid new shops rivaled the best
+of the Rue de la Paix in Paris. Gray medieval buildings made wonderful
+backgrounds for drapery of crimson and blue, and garlands of blazing
+flowers. Modern buildings of purple-red porphyry and the famous
+honey-yellow marble of Rhaetia, fluttered with flags; and above all,
+in the heart of the town, between old and new, rose the Castle Rock.
+Virginia's pulses beat, as she saw the home of Leopold for the first
+time, and she was proud of its picturesqueness, its riches and
+grandeur, as if she had some right in it, too.
+
+Ancient, narrow streets, and wide new streets, were alike arbors of
+evergreen and brilliant blossoms. Prosperous citizens in their best,
+inhabitants of the poorer quarters, and stalwart peasants from the
+country, elbowed and pushed each other good-naturedly, as they
+streamed toward the Leopoldplatz. Handsome people they were, the girl
+thought, her heart warming to them; and to her it seemed that the very
+air tingled with expectation. She believed that she could feel the
+magnetic thrill in it, even if she were blind and deaf, and could hear
+or see nothing of the excitement.
+
+"We must be in time--we shall be in time!" she said to herself. "I
+shall lean out from my window and see him."
+
+But at the hotel, which they did finally reach, the girl had to bear a
+keen disappointment. With many apologies the landlord explained that
+he had done his very best for Lady Mowbray's party when he received
+their letter a fortnight before, and that he had allotted them a good
+suite, with balconies overlooking the river at the back of the
+house--quite a venetian effect, as her ladyship would find. But, as to
+rooms at the front, impossible! All had been engaged fully six weeks
+in advance. One American millionaire was paying a thousand gulden
+solely for an hour's use of a small balcony, to-day for the unveiling
+and again to-morrow for the street procession. Virginia was pale with
+disappointment. "Then I'll go down into the crowd and take my chance
+of seeing something," she said to her mother, when they had been shown
+into handsome rooms, satisfactory in everything but situation. "I must
+hurry, or there'll be no hope."
+
+"My dear child, impossible for you to do such a thing!" exclaimed the
+Grand Duchess. "I can't think of allowing it. Fancy what a crush there
+will be. All sorts of creatures trampling on each other for places.
+Besides, you could see nothing."
+
+"Oh, Mother," pleaded the Princess, in her softest, sweetest
+voice--the voice she kept for extreme emergencies of cajoling. "I
+couldn't _bear_ to stay shut up here while that music plays and the
+crowds shout themselves hoarse for _my_ Emperor. Besides, it's the
+most curious thing--I feel as if a voice kept calling to me that I
+must be there. Miss Portman and I'll take care of each other. You
+_will_ let me go, won't you?"
+
+Of course the Grand Duchess yielded, her one stipulation being that
+the two should keep close to the hotel; and the Princess urged her
+reluctant companion away without waiting to hear her mother's last
+counsels.
+
+Their rooms were on the first floor, and the girl hurried eagerly
+down the broad flight of marble stairs, Miss Portman following
+dutifully upon her heels.
+
+They could not get out by way of the front door, for people had paid
+for standing room there, and would not yield an inch, even for an
+instant; while the two or three steps below, and the broad pavement in
+front were as closely blocked.
+
+Matters began to look hopeless, but Virginia would not be daunted.
+They tried the side entrance and found it free, the street into which
+it led being comparatively empty; but just beyond, where it ran into
+the great open square of the Leopoldplatz, there was a solid wall of
+sight-seers.
+
+"We might as well go back," said Miss Portman, who had none of the
+Princess's keenness for the undertaking. She was tired after the
+journey, and for herself, would rather have had a cup of tea than see
+fifty emperors unveil as many statues by celebrated sculptors.
+
+"Oh no!" cried Virginia. "We'll get to the front, somehow, sooner or
+later, even if we're taken off our feet. Look at that man just ahead
+of us. _He_ doesn't mean to turn back. He's not a nice man, but he's
+terribly determined. Let's keep close to him, and see what he means
+to do; then, maybe, we shall be able to do it as well."
+
+Miss Portman glanced at the person indicated by a nod of the
+Princess's head. Undismayed by the mass of human beings that blocked
+the Leopoldplatz a few yards ahead, he walked rapidly along without
+the least hesitation. He had the air of knowing exactly what he wanted
+to do, and how to do it. Even Miss Portman, who had no imagination,
+saw this by his back. The set of the head on the shoulders was
+singularly determined, and the walk revealed a consciousness of
+importance accounted for, perhaps, by the gray and crimson uniform
+which might be that of some official order. On the sleek, black head
+was a large cocked hat, adorned with an eagle's feather, fastened in
+place by a gaudy jewel, and this hat was pulled down very far over the
+face.
+
+"Perhaps he knows that they'll let him through," said Miss Portman.
+"He seems to be a dignitary of some sort. We can't do better, if
+you're determined to go on, than keep near him."
+
+"He has the air of being ready to die," whispered Virginia, for they
+were close to the man now.
+
+"How can you tell? We haven't seen his face," replied the other, in
+the same cautious tone.
+
+"No. But look at the back of his neck, and his ears."
+
+Miss Portman looked and gave a little shiver. She would never have
+thought of observing it, if her attention had not been called by the
+Princess. But it was true. The back of the man's neck and his ears
+were of a ghastly, yellow white.
+
+"Horrid!" she ejaculated. "He's probably dying of some contagious
+disease. Do let's get away from him."
+
+"No, no," said Virginia. "He's our only hope. They're going to let him
+pass through. Listen."
+
+Miss Portman listened, but as she understood only such words of
+Rhaetian as she had picked up in the last few weeks, she could merely
+surmise that he was ordering the crowd out of his way because he had a
+special message from the Lord Chancellor to the Burgomaster.
+
+The human wall opened; the man darted through, and Miss Portman was
+dragged after him by the Princess. So close to him had they kept, that
+they might easily be supposed to be under his escort; and in any
+case, they passed before there was time to dispute their right of way.
+
+"It must be the secretary of Herr Koffman, the new Burgomaster,"
+Virginia heard one man say to another. "And those ladies are with
+him."
+
+On and on, through the crowd, passed the man in gray and crimson,
+oblivious of the two women who were using him. There was something
+about that disagreeable back of his which proclaimed him a man of but
+one idea at a time. Close to the front line of spectators, however,
+there came a check. People were vexed at the audacity of the girl and
+the elderly woman, and would have pushed them back, but at the
+critical second the blue and silver uniformed band of Rhaetia's crack
+regiment, the Imperial Life Guards, struck up an air which told that
+the Emperor was coming. Promptly the small group concerned forgot its
+grievance, in excitement, crowding together so that Virginia was
+pressed to the front, and only Miss Portman was pushed ruthlessly into
+the background.
+
+The poor lady raised a feeble protest in English, which nobody heeded,
+unless it were the man who had inadvertently acted as pioneer. At her
+shrill outburst he turned quickly, as if startled by the sudden cry,
+and Virginia was so close to him that her chin almost touched his
+shoulder. For the first time she had a glimpse of his face, which
+matched the yellow wax of his neck in pallor.
+
+The girl shrank away from him involuntarily. "What a death's head!"
+she thought. "A sly, wicked face, and awful eyes. He looks frightened.
+I wonder why!"
+
+Assured that the sharp cry did not concern him, the man turned to the
+front again, and having obtained his object--a place in the foremost
+rank of the crowd, with one incidentally for the Princess--he
+proceeded to take from his breast a roll of parchment, tied with a
+narrow ribbon, and sealed with a large red seal. As he drew it out,
+and rearranged his coat, his hand trembled. It, too, was yellow white.
+The fellow seemed to have no blood in him.
+
+Virginia, standing now shoulder to shoulder with the man in gray and
+crimson, had just time to feel a stirring of dislike and perhaps
+curiosity, when a great cheer arose from thousands of throats. The
+square rang with a roar of loyal acclamation; men waved tall hats,
+soft hats, and green peasant hats with feathers. Beautifully dressed
+women grouped on the high, decorated balconies waved handkerchiefs or
+scattered roses from gilded baskets; women in gorgeous costumes from
+far-off provinces held up half-frightened, half-laughing children; and
+then a white figure on a white charger came riding into the square
+under the triumphal arch wreathed with flags and flowers.
+
+Other figures followed; men in uniforms of green and gold and red, on
+coal black horses, yet Virginia saw only the white figure, shining,
+wonderful.
+
+Under the glittering helmet of steel with its gold eagle, the dark
+face was clear-cut as a cameo, and the eyes were bright with a proud
+light. To the crowd, he was the Emperor; a fine, popular, brilliant
+young man, who ruled his country better than it had been ruled yet by
+one of his House, and above all, provided many a pleasing spectacle
+for the people. But to Virginia he was far more; an ideal Sir Galahad,
+or a St. George strong and brave to slay all dragon-wrongs which might
+threaten his wide land.
+
+"What if he should never love me?" was the one sharp thought which
+pierced her pride of him.
+
+The people were proud, too, as he sat there controlling the white
+war-horse with its gold and silver trappings, the crusted jewels of
+many Orders sparkling on his breast, while he saluted his subjects, in
+his soldier's way.
+
+For a moment there was a pause, save for a shouting, which rose and
+rose again; then he alighted, whereupon important looking men with
+ribbons and decorations came forward bowing, to receive the Emperor.
+The ceremony of unveiling the statue of Rhaetia was about to begin.
+
+To reach the great crimson-draped platform on which he was to stand,
+the Emperor must pass within a few yards of Virginia. His gaze flashed
+over the gay crowd. What if it should rest upon her? The girl's heart
+was in her throat. She could feel it beating there; and for a moment
+the tall, white figure was lost in a mist which dimmed her eyes.
+
+She had forgotten how she came to this place of vantage, forgotten the
+pale man in gray and red to whom she owed her good fortune; but
+suddenly, while her heart was at its loudest, and the mist before her
+eyes at its thickest, she grew conscious again of his existence,
+poignantly conscious of his close presence. So near her he stood that
+a quick start, a gathering of his muscles for a spring, shot like an
+electric message through her own body.
+
+The mist was burnt up in the flame of a strange enlightenment, a
+clarity of vision which showed, not only the hero of the day, the
+throng, and the wax-white man beside her, but something which was in
+the soul of that man as well.
+
+"He is going to kill the Emperor."
+
+It was as if a voice spoke the words in her ear. She knew now why she
+had struggled to win this place, why she had succeeded, what she had
+to do--or die in failing to do.
+
+Leopold was not half a dozen yards away, and was coming nearer. No one
+but Virginia suspected evil. She alone had felt the thrill of a
+murderer's nerves, the tense spring of his muscles. She alone guessed
+what the roll of parchment hid.
+
+"Now--now!" the voice seemed to whisper again, and she had no fear.
+
+While the crowd shouted wildly for "Unser Leo!" a man in gray and red
+leaped, catlike, at the white figure that advanced. Something sharp
+and bright flashed out from a roll of parchment, catching the sun in a
+streak of steely light.
+
+[Illustration: "_Let the law deal with the madman; it is my will_"]
+
+Leopold saw, but not in time to swerve. The crowd shrieked, rushed
+forward, too late, and the blade would have drunk his life, had not
+the girl who had felt all, seen all, struck up the arm before it fell.
+
+The rest was darkness for her. She knew only that she was sobbing, and
+that the great square with its crowded balconies, its ropes of green,
+its waving flags, seemed to collapse upon her and blot her out.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was Leopold who caught her as she swayed: and while the people
+surged around the thwarted murderer, the Emperor sprang up the steps
+of the great crimson platform, with the girl against his heart.
+
+It was her blood that stained the pure white of his uniform, the blood
+from her arm wounded in his defense. And holding her up he stood
+dominating the crowd.
+
+Down there at the foot of the steps, the man in gray and red was like
+a spent fox among the hounds, and Leopold's people in the fury of
+their rage would have torn him in pieces as the hounds tear the fox,
+despite the cordon of police that gathered round him. But the voice of
+the Emperor bade his subjects fall back.
+
+"My people shall not be assassins," he cried to them. "Let the law
+deal with the madman; it is my will. Look at me, alive and unhurt.
+Now, give your cheers for the lady who has saved my life, and the
+ceremonies shall go on."
+
+Three cheers, had he said? They gave three times three, and bade fair
+to split the skies with shouts for the Emperor. While women laughed
+and wept and all eyes were upon that noble pair on the red platform,
+something limp and gray was hurried out of sight and off to prison. On
+a signal the national anthem began; the voices of the people joined
+the brass instruments. All Kronburg was singing; or asking "Who is
+she?" of the girl at the Emperor's side.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE HONORS OF THE DAY
+
+
+It is those in the thick of the battle who can afterwards tell least
+about it; and to the Princess those five minutes--moments the most
+tremendous, the most vital of her life--were afterwards in memory like
+a dream.
+
+She had seen that a man was ghastly pale; she had caught a gleam of
+fear in his eye; she had felt a tigerish quiver run through his frame
+as the crowd pressed him against her. Instinct--and love--had told her
+the rest, and taught her how to act.
+
+Vaguely she recalled later, that she had thrown herself forward and
+struck up the knife. An impression of that knife as the light gleamed
+on it, alone was clear. Sickening, she had thought of the dull sound
+it would make in falling, of the blood that would spout from a rent in
+the white coat, among the jeweled orders. She had thought, as one
+thinks in dying, of existence in a world empty of Leopold, and she
+had known that unless he could be saved, her one wish was to go out of
+the world with him.
+
+More than this she had not thought or known. What she did was done
+scarcely by her own volition, and she seemed to wake with a start at
+last, to hear herself sobbing, and to feel the throb, throb, of a hot
+pain in her arm.
+
+A hundred hands--not quick enough to save, yet quick enough to follow
+the lead given by her--had fought to seize the man in gray, and stop a
+second blow. They had borne him away; while as for Virginia, her work
+done, she forgot everything and every one but Leopold.
+
+Reviving, she had heard him speak to the crowd, and told herself
+dreamily that, were she dying, his voice could bring her back if he
+called. She even listened to each word that rang out like a cathedral
+bell, above the babel. Still he held her, and when the cheers came,
+she scarcely understood that they were for her as well as for Leopold
+the Emperor. Afterwards, the necessity for public action over, he bent
+his head close enough to whisper, "Thank you"; and then for Virginia
+every syllable was clear.
+
+"You are the bravest woman alive," he said. "I had to keep them from
+killing that ruffian, but now I can speak to you alone. I thank you
+for what you did, with my whole heart, and I pray Heaven you're not
+seriously hurt."
+
+"No, not hurt, and very happy," the Princess answered, hardly knowing
+what she said. She felt like a soul released from its body, floating
+in blue ether. What could it matter if that body ached or bled?
+Leopold was safe, and she had saved him.
+
+He pointed to her sleeve. "The knife struck you. Your arm's bleeding,
+and the wound must be seen immediately by my own surgeon. Would that I
+could go with you myself, but duty keeps me here; you understand that.
+Baron von Lyndal and his wife will at once take you home, wherever you
+may be staying. They--"
+
+"But I would rather stop and see the rest," said Virginia. "I'm quite
+well now, not even weak, and I can go down to my friend--"
+
+"If you're able to stop, it must be here with me," answered Leopold.
+"After the service you have done for me and for the country, it is
+your place."
+
+The ladies of the court, who, with their husbands, had been waiting
+to congratulate Leopold, crowded round the girl as the Emperor turned
+to them with a look and gesture of invitation. A seat was given her,
+and the arm in its blood-stained sleeve was hastily bound up. She was
+the heroine of the day, dividing honors with its hero.
+
+There was scarcely a _grande dame_ among the brilliant assemblage on
+the Emperor's platform, to whom Lady Mowbray and her daughter had not
+a letter of introduction, from their invaluable friend. But no one
+knew at this moment of any title to their recognition possessed by the
+girl, other than the right she had earned by her splendid deed. All
+smiled on her through grateful tears, though there were some who would
+have given their ten fingers to have stepped into her place.
+
+Thus Virginia sat through the ceremonies, careless that thousands of
+eyes were on her face, thinking only of one pair of eyes, which spared
+a glance for her now and then; hardly seeing the statue of Rhaetia
+whose glorious marble womanhood unveiled roused a storm of enthusiasm
+from the crowd; hearing only the short, stirring speech made by
+Leopold.
+
+When everything was over, and the people had no excuse to linger save
+to see the Emperor ride away and the great personages disperse,
+Leopold turned again to Virginia.
+
+All the world was listening, of course; all the world was watching,
+too; and no matter what his inclination might have been, his words
+could be but few.
+
+Once more he thanked and praised her for her courage, her presence of
+mind; thanked her for remaining, as if she had been granting a favor
+to him; and asked where she was stopping, in Kronburg as he promised
+himself the honor of sending to inquire for her health that evening.
+
+His desire would be to call at once in person, he added, but, owing to
+the program arranged for this day and several days to follow, not only
+each hour but each moment would be officially occupied. These birthday
+festivities were troublesome, but duly must be done. And then, Leopold
+repeated (when he had Miss Mowbray's name and address), the court
+surgeon and physician would be commanded to attend upon her without
+delay.
+
+With these words and a chivalrous courtesy at parting, the Emperor was
+gone, Baron von Lyndal, Grand Master of Ceremonies, and his Baroness
+having been told off to take care of Miss Mowbray.
+
+In another mood it would have pricked Virginia's sense of humor to see
+Baroness von Lyndal's almost shocked surprise at discovering her to be
+the daughter of that Lady Mowbray whom she was asked to meet. (Luckily
+all the letters of introduction had reached their destination, it
+merely remaining, according to etiquette in Rhaetia, for Lady Mowbray
+to announce her arrival in Kronburg by sending cards to the
+recipients.) But Virginia had no heart for laughter now.
+
+She had been on the point of forgetting, until reminded by a dig from
+the spur of necessity, that she was only a masquerader, acting her
+borrowed part in a pageant. For the first time since she had hopefully
+taken it up, that part became detestable. She would have given almost
+anything to throw it off, and be herself: for nothing less than clear
+sincerity seemed worthy of this day and the event which crowned it.
+
+Nevertheless, in the vulgar language of proverb which no well
+brought-up Princess should ever stoop to use, she had made her own
+bed, and she must lie in it. It would not do for her suddenly to give
+out to the world of Kronburg that she was not, after all, Miss
+Mowbray, but Princess Virginia of Baumenburg-Drippe. That would not be
+fair to the Grand Duchess, who had yielded to her wishes, nor fair to
+her own plans. Above all, it would not be fair to the Emperor,
+handicapped as he now was by a debt of gratitude. No; Miss Mowbray she
+was, and Miss Mowbray she must for the present remain.
+
+Naturally the Grand Duchess fainted when her daughter was brought back
+with ominous red stains upon the gray background of her traveling
+dress. But the wound was neither deep nor dangerous. The court surgeon
+was as consoling as he was complimentary, and by the time that
+messengers from the palace had arrived with inquiries from the Emperor
+and invitations to the Emperor's ball, the mother of the heroine could
+dispense with her sal volatile.
+
+She had fortunately much to think of. There was the important question
+of dress for the ball to-morrow night; there was the still more
+pressing question of the newspapers, which must not be allowed to
+publish the borrowed name of Mowbray, lest complications should arise;
+and there were the questions to be asked of Virginia. How had she
+felt? How had she dared? How had the Emperor looked, and what had the
+Emperor said?
+
+If it had been natural for the Grand Duchess to faint, it was equally
+natural that she should not faint twice. She began to believe, after
+all, that Providence smiled upon Virginia and her adventure; and she
+wondered whether the Princess's white satin embroidered with seed
+pearls, or the silver spangled blue tulle would be more becoming to
+wear to the ball.
+
+Next day the Rhaetian newspapers devoted columns to the attack upon
+the Emperor by an anarchist from a certain province (once Italian),
+who had disguised himself as an official in the employ of the
+Burgomaster. There were long paragraphs in praise of the lady who,
+with marvelous courage and presence of mind, had sprung between the
+Emperor and the assassin, receiving on the arm with which she had
+shielded _Unser Leo_ a glancing blow from the weapon aimed at the
+Imperial breast. But, thanks to a few earnestly imploring words
+written by "Lady Mowbray" to Baron von Lyndal, commands impressed upon
+the landlord of the hotel, and the fact that Rhaetian editors are not
+as modern as Americans in their methods, the lady was not named. She
+was a foreigner and a stranger to the capital of Rhaetia; she was,
+according to the papers, "as yet unknown."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE EMPEROR'S BALL
+
+
+Not a window of the fourteenth century, yellow marble palace on the
+hill, with its famous Garden of the Nine Fountains, that was not
+ablaze with light, glittering against a far-away background of violet
+mountains crowned by snow.
+
+Outside the tall, bronze gates where marble lions crouched, the crowd
+who might not pass beyond stared, chattered, pointed and exclaimed,
+without jealousy of their betters. _Unser Leo_ was giving a ball, and
+it was enough for their happiness to watch the slow moving line of
+splendid state coaches, gorgeous automobiles, and neat broughams with
+well-known crests upon their doors; to strive good-naturedly for a
+peep at the faces and dresses, the jewels and picturesque uniforms; to
+comment upon all freely but never impudently, asking one another what
+would be for supper, and with whom the Emperor would dance.
+
+"There she is--there's the beautiful young foreign lady who saved
+him!" cried a girl in the throng. "I was there and saw her, I tell
+you. Isn't she an angel?"
+
+Instantly a hearty cheer went up, growing in volume, and the
+green-coated policemen had to keep back the crowd that would have
+stopped the horses and pressed close for a long look into a plain,
+dark-blue brougham.
+
+Virginia shrank out of sight against the cushions, blushing, and
+breathing quickly as she caught her mother's hand.
+
+"Dear people,--dear, kind people," she thought. "I love them for
+loving him. I wonder, oh I wonder, if they will ever see me and cheer
+me, driving by his side?"
+
+She had chosen to wear the white dress with the pearls, though up to
+the last moment the Grand Duchess had suffered tortures of indecision
+between that and the blue, to say nothing of a pink chiffon trimmed
+with crushed roses. Before the carriage brought them to the palace
+doors, the girl's blush had faded, and her face was as white as her
+gown when at her mother's side she passed between bowing lackeys
+through the marble Hall of Lions, on through the frescoed Rittersaal
+to the throne room where the Emperor's guests awaited his coming.
+
+It was etiquette not to arrive a moment later than ten o'clock; and a
+few minutes after the hour Baron von Lyndal, in his official capacity
+as Grand Master of Ceremonies, struck the polished floor twice with
+his gold-knobbed wand of ivory. This signaled the approach of the
+court from the Imperial dinner party, and Leopold entered, with a
+stout, middle-aged Royal Highness from Russia on his arm.
+
+Until his arrival the beautiful Miss Mowbray had held all eyes; and
+even when he appeared, she was not forgotten. Every one was on tenter
+hooks to see how she would be greeted by the grateful Emperor.
+
+The instant that his dark head towered above other heads in the throne
+room, it was observed even by those not usually observant, that never
+had Leopold been so handsome.
+
+His was a face remarkable for intellect and firmness rather than for
+classical beauty of feature, though his features were strong and
+clearly cut; but to-night the sternness that sometimes marred them in
+the eyes of women was smoothed away. He looked young and ardent,
+almost boyish, like a man who has suddenly found an absorbing new
+interest in life.
+
+The first dance he went through with the Russian Royalty, who was the
+guest of the evening; and, still rigidly conforming to the line of
+duty (which obtains in court ball-rooms as on battlefields), the
+second, third and fourth dances were for the Emperor penances instead
+of pleasures. But for the fifth--a waltz--he bowed before Virginia.
+
+During this long hour there had been hardly a movement, smile or
+glance of hers which he had not contrived to see, since his entrance.
+He knew just how well Baron von Lyndal carried out his instructions
+concerning Miss Mowbray. He saw each partner presented to her for a
+dance the Emperor might not claim; and to save his life, or a national
+crisis, he could not have forced the same expression in speaking with
+her Royal Highness from Russia, as that which spontaneously brightened
+his face when at last he approached Virginia.
+
+"Who is that girl?" asked Count von Breitstein, in his usual abrupt
+manner, as the arm of Leopold girdled the slim waist of the Princess,
+and the eyes of Leopold drank light from another pair of eyes lifted
+to his in laughter.
+
+It was to Baroness von Lyndal that the old Chancellor put his
+question, and she fluttered a tiny, diamond-spangled fan of lace to
+hide lips that would smile, as she answered, "What, Chancellor, are
+you jesting, or don't you really know who that girl is?"
+
+Count von Breitstein turned eyes cold and gray as glass away from the
+two figures moving rhythmically with the music, to the face of the
+once celebrated beauty. Long ago he had admired Baroness von Lyndal as
+passionately as it was in him to admire any woman; but that day was so
+far distant as to be remembered with scorn, and now, such power as she
+had over him was merely to excite a feeling of irritation.
+
+"I seldom trouble myself to jest," he answered.
+
+"Ah, one knows that truly great men are born without a sense of humor;
+those who have it are never as successful in life as those without,"
+smiled the Baroness, who was by birth a Hungarian, and loved laughter
+better than anything else, except compliments upon her vanishing
+beauty. "How stupid of me to have tried your patience. 'That girl,' as
+you so uncompromisingly call her, has two claims to attention at
+court. She is the English Miss Helen Mowbray whose mother has come to
+Kronburg armed with sheaves of introductions to us all. She is also
+the young woman of whom the papers are full to-day, for it is she who
+saved the Emperor's life."
+
+"Indeed," said the Chancellor, a gray gleam in his eye as he watched
+the white figure floating on the tide of music, in the arms of
+Leopold. "Indeed."
+
+"I thought you would have known, for you know most things before other
+people hear of them," went on the Baroness. "Lady Mowbray and her
+daughter are stopping at the Hohenlangenwald Hotel. That's the mother
+sitting on the left of Princess Neufried,--the pretty, Dresden china
+person. But the girl is a great beauty."
+
+"It's generous of you to say so, Baroness," replied the Chancellor. "I
+didn't see the young lady's face at all clearly yesterday; I was
+stationed too far away; and dress makes a great difference. As for
+what she did," went on the old man, whose coldness to women and
+merciless justice to both sexes alike had earned him the nickname of
+"Iron Heart," "as for what she did, if it had not been she who
+intervened between the Emperor and death, it would have been the fate
+of another to do so. It was a fortunate thing for the girl, we may
+say, that it happened to be her arm which struck up the weapon."
+
+"Or she wouldn't be here to-night, you mean," laughed the Baroness.
+"Don't you think, then, that his Majesty is right to single her out
+for so much honor?" Her eyes were on the dancers; yet that mysterious
+skill which most women of the world have learned, taught her how not
+to miss the slightest change of expression, if there were any, on the
+Chancellor's square, lined face.
+
+"His Majesty is always right," he replied diplomatically. "An
+invitation to a ball; a dance or two; a few compliments; a call to pay
+his respects; a gentleman could not be less gracious. And his Majesty
+is one of the first gentlemen in Europe."
+
+"He has had good training, what to do and what not to do." The
+Baroness flung her little sop of flattery to Cerberus with a dainty
+ghost of a bow for the man who had been as a second father to Leopold
+since the late Emperor's death. "But--we're old friends, Chancellor,"
+(she was not to blame that they had not been more in the days before
+she became Baroness von Lyndal), "so tell me; can you look at the
+girl's face and the Emperor's, and still say that everything will end
+with an invitation, a dance, some compliments, and a call to pay
+respects?"
+
+Iron Heart frowned and sneered, wondering what he could have seen,
+twenty-two years ago, to admire in this flighty woman. He would have
+escaped from her now, if escape had been feasible; but he could not be
+openly rude to the wife of the Grand Master of Ceremonies, at the
+Emperor's ball. And besides, he was not unwilling, perhaps, to show
+the lady that her sentimental and unsuitable innuendos were as the
+buzzing of a fly about his ears.
+
+"I'm close upon seventy, and no longer a fair judge of a woman's
+attractions," he returned carelessly. "A look at her face conveys
+nothing to me. But, were she Helen of Troy instead of Helen Mowbray,
+the invitation, the dance, the compliments, and the call--with the
+present of some jeweled souvenir--are all that are permissible in the
+circumstances."
+
+"What circumstances?" and the Baroness looked as innocent as an
+inquiring child.
+
+"The lady is not of Royal blood. And his Majesty, I thank Heaven, is
+not a roue."
+
+"He has a heart, though you trained him, Chancellor; and he has eyes.
+He may never have used them to much purpose before, yet there must be
+a first time. And the higher and more strongly built the tower, once
+it begins to topple, the greater is the fall thereof."
+
+"Is it the sense of humor, which you say I lack, that gives you
+pleasure in discussing the wildest improbabilities, as if they were
+events to be considered seriously? If it is, I'm not sorry to lack it.
+In any case, it's as well that neither you nor I is the Emperor's
+keeper."
+
+"We're at least his very good friends, I as well as you, in my humbler
+way, Chancellor. And you and I have known each other for twenty-two
+years. If it amuses me to discuss improbabilities, why not? Since you
+call them improbabilities, it can do no harm to dwell upon them as
+ingredients for romance. Not for worlds would I suggest that his
+Majesty isn't an example for all men to follow, nor that poor, pretty
+Miss Mowbray could be tempted to indiscretion. But yet I'd be ready to
+make a wager--the Emperor being human, and the girl a beauty--that an
+acquaintance so romantically begun won't end with a ball and a call."
+
+"What could there possibly be more--or what you hint at as more--in
+honor?"
+
+The Chancellor's voice was angry at last, as well as stern, for he
+could not bear persistence--in other people--unless it were to further
+some cause of his own. To the delight of the woman who had once tried
+in vain to melt his iron heart, Count von Breitstein began to look
+somewhat like a baited bull. Really, said the Baroness to herself,
+there was an actual resemblance in feature; and joyously she searched
+for a few more little ribbon-tipped banderillos.
+
+What fun it was to ruffle the temper of the surly old brute who had
+humiliated her woman's vanity in days long past, but not forgotten!
+She knew the Chancellor's desire for the Emperor's marriage as soon as
+a suitable match could be found; and though she was not in the secret
+of his plans, would have felt little surprise at learning that some
+eligible Royal girl had already been selected. Now, how amusing it
+would be actually to make the old man tremble for the success of his
+hopes, even if it should turn out in the end to be impossible or
+undesirable to upset them!
+
+"What could there be more--in honor?" she echoed lightly after an
+instant given to reflection.
+
+"Why, the Emperor and the girl will see a great deal of each other,
+unless you banish or imprison the Mowbrays. There'll be many dances
+together, many calls; in fact, a serial romance instead of a short
+story. Why shouldn't his Majesty know the pleasure of a--platonic
+friendship with a beautiful and charming young woman?"
+
+"Because Plato's out of fashion, if ever he was in, among human beings
+with red blood in their veins; and because, as I said, the Emperor is
+above all else a man of honor. Besides, I doubt that any woman, no
+matter how pretty or young, could wield a really powerful influence
+over his life."
+
+"You doubt that? Then you don't know the Emperor; and you've forgotten
+some of the traditions of his house."
+
+"Are you trying to warn me of disaster, Baroness?"
+
+She laughed. "Oh, dear no. Of nothing disagreeable. But I should be
+sorry to think, as you seem to do, that our Emperor has no youth in
+his veins."
+
+"I think nothing of the sort. What I do think is that my teachings
+have not been in vain, and that he has grown up to put his duty to his
+country and his own self-respect above everything. He's a strong
+man--too strong to be trapped in the meshes of any pink and white
+Vivien. And if he admired a young woman not of Royal blood, he would
+keep his distance for her sake. You say this English miss is with her
+mother at the principal hotel of Kronburg. If Leopold constantly
+visited them there we should have a scandal. On the other hand, to
+suggest meeting the girl outside, or incognito, would be an insult.
+Either way he would be but poorly rewarding a woman who saved his
+life."
+
+Baroness von Lyndal's color rallied to the support of her rouge, and
+her smile dwindled to inanity, for she had insisted upon the argument,
+and it was going against her.
+
+In her haste to vex the Chancellor, she had not stopped to study from
+every side the question she had raised. So far, she had merely
+succeeded in irritating him, and she owed him much more than a pin
+prick. Such infinitesimal wounds she had contrived to give the man in
+abundance, during her twenty-two years at the Rhaetian Court; but now,
+if she hurt him at all, she would like the stab to be deep and
+memorable.
+
+To be sure, in beginning the conversation, she had thought of nothing
+more than a momentary gratification, but the very heat of the argument
+into which she had thrown herself had warmed her malice, and sharpened
+the weapon of her wit. She could justify her expressed opinion only by
+events, and it occurred to her that she might be able to shape events
+in such a way that she could say with eyes, if not in words, "I told
+you so."
+
+Her fading smile brightened. "Dear Chancellor, you do well to have
+faith in your Imperial pupil," said she. "You've helped to make him
+what he is, and you're ready to keep him what he should be. I suppose,
+even, that if, being but a young man and having the hot blood of his
+race, he should stray into a primrose path, you would take advantage
+of old friendship to--er--put up sign-posts and barriers?"
+
+"Were there the slightest chance of such necessity arising," grumbled
+the Chancellor, shrugging his shoulders.
+
+"It's like your integrity and courage. What a comfort, then, that the
+necessity is so unlikely to arise."
+
+The old man looked at her with level gaze, the ruthless look that
+brushes away a woman's paint and powder, and coldly counts the
+wrinkles underneath. "I must have misunderstood you then, a moment
+ago," he said. "I thought your argument was all the other way round,
+madam?"
+
+"I told you I was amusing myself. What can one do at a ball, when one
+has reached the age when it would be foolish to dance? Why, I believe
+that Lady Mowbray and her daughter are not remaining long in
+Kronburg."
+
+At last she was able to judge that she had given the Chancellor a few
+uneasy moments, for his eyes brightened visibly with relief. "Ah," he
+returned, "then they are going out of Rhaetia?"
+
+"Not exactly that," said the Baroness, slowly, pleasantly, and
+distinctly. "I hear that they've been asked to the country to visit
+one of his Majesty's oldest friends."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Leopold was not supposed to care for dancing, though he danced--as it
+was his pride to do all things--well. Certainly there was often a
+perfunctoriness about his manner in a ball-room, a suggestion of the
+soldier on duty in his unsmiling face, and his readiness to lead a
+partner to her seat when a dance was over.
+
+But to-night a new Leopold moved to the music. A girl's white arm on
+his--that slender arm which had been quick and firm as a man's in his
+defense; the perfume of a girl's hair, and the gold glints upon it;
+the shadow of a girl's dark lashes, and the light in a pair of gray
+eyes when they were lifted; the beating of a girl's heart near him;
+the springtime grace of a girl's sweet youth in its contrast with the
+voluptuous summer of Rhaetian types of beauty; the warm rose that
+spread upwards from a girl's childlike dimples to the womanly arch of
+her brows; all these charms and more which rendered one girl a hundred
+times adorable, took hold of him, and made him not an Emperor, but a
+man, unarmored.
+
+When the music ceased, he fancied for an instant that some accident
+had befallen the musicians. Then, when he realized that the end of the
+dance had come in its due time, he remembered with pleasure a rule of
+his court, established in the days of those who had been before him.
+After each dance an interval of ten minutes was allowed before the
+beginning of another. Ten minutes are not much to a man who has things
+to say which could hardly be said in ten hours; still, they are
+something; and to waste even one would be like spilling a drop of
+precious elixir from a tiny bottle containing but nine other drops.
+
+They had scarcely spoken yet, except for commonplaces which any one
+might have overheard, since the day on the mountain; and in this first
+moment of the ten, each was wondering whether or no that day should be
+ignored between them. Leopold did not feel that it should be spoken
+of, for it was possible that the girl did not recognize the chamois
+hunter in the Emperor; and Virginia did not feel that she could speak
+of it. But then, few things turn out as people feel they should.
+
+Next to the throne room was the ball-room; and beyond was another
+known as the "Waldsaal," which Leopold had fitted up for the
+gratification of a fancy. It was named the "Waldsaal" because it
+represented a wood. Walls and ceiling were masked with thick-growing
+creepers trained over invisible wires, through which peeped stars of
+electric light, like the chequerings of sunshine between netted
+branches. Trees grew up, with their roots in boxes hidden beneath the
+moss-covered floor. There were grottoes of ivy-draped rock in the
+corners, and here and there out from leafy shadows glittered the glass
+eyes of birds and animals--eagles, stags, chamois, wolves and
+bears--which the Emperor had shot.
+
+This strange room, so vast as to seem empty when dozens of people
+wandered beneath its trees and among its rock grottoes, was thrown
+open to guests whenever a ball was given at the palace; but the
+conservatories and palm houses were more popular; and when Leopold
+brought Miss Mowbray to the Waldsaal after their dance, it was in the
+hope that they might not be disturbed.
+
+She was lovelier than ever in her white dress, under the trees,
+looking up at him with a wonderful look in her eyes, and the young
+man's calmness was mastered by the beating of his blood.
+
+"This is a kind of madness," he said to himself. "It will pass. It
+must pass." And aloud,--meaning all the while to say something
+different and commonplace,--the real words in his mind broke through
+the crust of conventionality. "Why did you do it?"
+
+Virginia's eyes widened. "I don't understand." Then, in an instant,
+she found that she did understand. She knew, too, that the question
+had asked itself in spite of him, but that once it had been uttered he
+would stand to his guns.
+
+"I mean the thing I shall have to thank you for always."
+
+If Virginia had had time to think, she might have prepared some pretty
+answer; but, there being no time, her response came as his question
+had, from the heart. "I couldn't help doing it."
+
+"You couldn't help risking your life to--" He dared not finish.
+
+"It was to save--" Nor was there any end for her sentence.
+
+Then perhaps it was not strange that he forgot certain restrictions
+which a Royal man, in conversing with a commoner, is not supposed to
+forget. In fact, he forgot that he was Royal, or that she was not, and
+his voice grew unsteady, his tone eager, as if he had been some poor
+subaltern with the girl of his first love.
+
+"There's something I must show you," he said. Opening a button of the
+military coat blazing with jewels and orders, he drew out a loop of
+thin gold chain. At the end dangled a small, bright thing that flashed
+under a star of electric light.
+
+"My ring!" breathed Virginia.
+
+Thus died the Emperor's intention to ignore the day that had been
+theirs together.
+
+"Your ring! You gave it to Leo. He kept it. He will always keep it.
+Have I surprised you?"
+
+Virginia felt it would be best to say "yes," but instead she answered
+"no"; for pretty, white fibs cannot be told under such a look in a
+man's eyes, by a girl who loves him.
+
+"I have not? When did you guess the truth? Yesterday, or--"
+
+"At Alleheiligen."
+
+Silence fell for a minute, while Leopold digested the answer, and its
+full meaning. He remembered the bread and ham; the cow he could not
+milk; the ruecksacks he had carried. He remembered everything--and
+laughed.
+
+"You knew, at Alleheiligen? Not on the mountain, when--"
+
+"Yes. I guessed even then, I confess. Oh, I don't mean that I went
+there expecting to find you. I didn't. I think I shouldn't have gone,
+had I known. Every one believed you were at Melinabad. But when I
+tumbled down and you saved me, I looked up, and--of course I'd seen
+your picture, and one reads in the papers that you're fond of chamois
+hunting. I couldn't help guessing--oh, I'm sorry you asked me this!"
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because--one might have to be afraid of an Emperor if he were angry."
+
+"Do I look angry?"
+
+Their eyes met again, laughing at first, then each finding unexpected
+depths in those of the other which drove away laughter. Something in
+Leopold's breast seemed alive and struggling to be free from
+restraint, like a fierce, wild bird. He shut his lips tightly,
+breathing hard. Both forgot that a question had been asked; but it was
+Virginia who spoke first, since it is easier for a woman than a man to
+hide feeling.
+
+"I wonder why you kept the ring after my--impertinence."
+
+"I had a good reason for keeping it."
+
+"Won't you tell me?"
+
+"You're quick at forming conclusions, Miss Mowbray. Can't you guess?"
+
+"To remind you to beware of strange young women on mountains."
+
+"No."
+
+"Because your own picture is inside?"
+
+"It was a better reason than that."
+
+"Am I not to ask it?"
+
+"On that day, you asked what you chose. All the more should you do so
+now, since there's nothing I could refuse you."
+
+"Not the half of your Kingdom--like the Royal men in fairy stories?"
+
+As soon as the words were out Virginia would have given much to have
+them back. She had not thought of a meaning they might convey; but she
+tried not to blush, lest he should think of it now. Nevertheless he
+did think of it, and the light words, striking a chord they had not
+aimed to touch, went echoing on and on, till they reached that part of
+himself which the Emperor knew least about--his heart.
+
+"Half his Kingdom?" Yes, he would give it to this girl, if he could.
+Heavens, what it would be to share it with her!
+
+"Ask anything you will," he said, as a man speaks in a dream.
+
+"Then tell me--why you kept the ring."
+
+"Because the only woman I ever cared--to make my friend, took it from
+her finger and gave it to me."
+
+"Now the Emperor is pleased to pay compliments."
+
+"You know I am sincere."
+
+"But you'd seen me only for an hour. Instead of deserving your
+friendship, I'm afraid I--"
+
+"For one hour? That's true. And how long ago is that one hour? A week
+or so, I suppose, as Time counts. But then came yesterday, and the
+thing you did for me. Now, I've known you always."
+
+"If you had, perhaps you wouldn't want me for your friend."
+
+"I do want you."
+
+The words would come. It was true--already. He did want her. But not
+as a friend. His world,--a world without women, without passion fiery
+enough to devour principles or traditions, was upside down.
+
+It was well that the ten minutes' grace between dances was over,
+and the music for the next about to begin. A young officer, Count
+von Breitstein's half-brother--who was to be Miss Mowbray's
+partner--appeared in the distance, looking for her; but stopped,
+seeing that she was still with the Emperor.
+
+"Good-by," said Virginia, while her words could still be only for the
+ears of Leopold.
+
+"Not good-by. We're friends."
+
+"Yes. But we sha'n't meet often."
+
+"Why? Are you leaving Kronburg?"
+
+"Perhaps--soon. I don't know."
+
+"I must see you again. I will see you once more, whatever comes."
+
+"Once more, perhaps. I hope so, but--"
+
+"After that--"
+
+"Who knows?"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Once more--once more!" The words echoed in Virginia's ears. She heard
+them through everything, as one hears the undertone of a mountain
+torrent, though a brass band may bray to drown its deep music.
+
+Once more he would see her, whatever might come. She could guess why
+it might be only once, though he would fain have that once again and
+again repeated. For this game of hers, begun with such a light heart,
+was more difficult to play than she had dreamed.
+
+If she could but be sure he cared; if he would tell her so, in words,
+and not with eyes alone, the rest might be easy, although at best she
+could not see the end. Yet how, in honor, could he tell Miss Helen
+Mowbray that he cared? And if the telling were not to be in honor, how
+could she bear to live her life?
+
+"Once more!" What would happen in that "once more?" Perhaps nothing
+save a repetition of grateful thanks, and courteous words akin to a
+farewell.
+
+To be sure Lady Mowbray and her daughter might run away, and the
+negotiations between the Emperor's advisers and the Grand Duchess of
+Baumenburg-Drippe for the Princess Virginia's hand might be allowed to
+go on, as if no outside influence had ruffled the peaceful current of
+events. Then, in the end, a surprise would come for Leopold; wilful
+Virginia would have played her little comedy, and all might be said to
+end well. But Virginia's heart refused to be satisfied with so tame a
+last chapter, a finish to her romance so conventional as to be
+distastefully obvious, almost if not quite a failure.
+
+She had begun to drink a sweet and stimulating draught--she who had
+been brought up on milk and water--and she was reluctant to put down
+the cup, still half full of sparkling nectar.
+
+"Once more!" If only that once could be magnified into many times. If
+she could have her chance--her "fling," like the lucky girls who were
+not Royal!
+
+So she was thinking in the carriage by her mother's side, and the
+Grand Duchess had to speak twice, before her daughter knew their
+silence had been broken.
+
+"I forgot to tell you something, Virginia."
+
+"Ye-es, Mother?"
+
+"Your great success has made me absent-minded, child. You looked like
+a shining white lily among all those handsome, overblown Rhaetian
+women."
+
+"Thank you, dear. Was that what you forgot to say?"
+
+"Oh no! It was this. The Baroness von Lyndal has been most kind. She
+urges us to give up our rooms at the hotel, on the first of next week,
+and join her house party at Schloss Lyndalberg. It's only a few miles
+out of town. What do you think of the plan?"
+
+"Leave--Kronburg?"
+
+"She's asked a number of friends--to meet the Emperor."
+
+"Oh! He didn't speak of it--when we danced."
+
+"But she has mentioned it to him since, no doubt,--before giving me
+the invitation. Intimate friend of his as she is, she wouldn't dare
+ask people to meet him, if he hadn't first sanctioned the suggestion.
+Still, she can afford to be more or less informal. The Baroness was
+dancing with the Emperor, I remember now, just before she came to me.
+They were talking together quite earnestly. I can recall the
+expression of his face."
+
+"Was it pleased, or--"
+
+"I was wondering what she could have said to make him look so happy.
+Perhaps--"
+
+"What answer did you give Baroness von Lyndal?"
+
+"I told her--I thought you wouldn't mind--I told her we would go."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+IRON HEART AT HOME
+
+
+Schloss Lyndalberg towers high on a promontory, overlooking a lake,
+seven or eight miles to the south of the Rhaetian capital. The castle
+is comparatively modern, with pointed turrets and fretted minarets,
+and, being built of white, Carrara marble, throws a reflection snowy
+as a submerged swan, into the clear green water of the Moemmelsee. All
+the surroundings of the palace, from its broad terraces to its jeweled
+fountains and well-nigh tropical gardens, suggest luxury, gaiety,
+pleasure.
+
+But, on the opposite bank of the Moemmelsee is huddled the dark shape
+of an ancient fortified stronghold, begun no one remembers how many
+centuries ago by the first Count von Breitstein. Generation following
+generation, the men of that family completed the work, until nowadays
+it is difficult to know where the rock ends, and the castle begins.
+There, like a dragon squatting on the coils of its own tail, the dark
+mass is poised, its deep-set window-eyes glaring across the bright
+water at the white splendor of Lyndalberg, like the malevolent stare
+of the monster waiting to spring upon and devour a fair young maiden.
+
+The moods of Baroness von Lyndal concerning grim old Schloss
+Breitstein had varied many times during her years of residence by the
+lake. Sometimes she pleased herself by reflecting that the great man
+who had slighted her lived in less luxury than she had attained by her
+excellent marriage. Again, the thought of the ancient lineage of the
+present Count von Breitstein filled her with envy; and oftener than
+all, the feeling that the "old grizzly bear" could crouch in his den
+and watch sneeringly everything which happened at Lyndalberg got upon
+the lady's nerves. She could have screamed and shaken her fist at the
+dark mass of rock and stone across the water. But after the birthday
+ball and during the first days of Leopold's visit at her house, she
+often threw a whimsical glance at the grim silhouette against the
+northern sky, and smiled.
+
+"Can you see, old bear?" she would ask, gayly. "Are you spying over
+there? Do you think yourself all-wise and all-powerful? Do you see
+what's in my mind now, and do you guess partly why I've taken all this
+trouble? Are you racking your brain for some way of spoiling my little
+plans? But you can't do it, you know. It's too late. There's nothing
+you can do, except sit still and growl, and glare at your own
+claws--which a woman has clipped. How do you like the outlook, old
+bear? Do you lie awake at night and study how to save your scheme for
+the Emperor's marriage? All your grumpy old life you've despised
+women; but now you're beginning at last to find out that powerful as
+you are, there are some things a woman with tact and money, nice
+houses and a good-natured husband can do, which the highest statesman
+in the land can't undo. How soon shall I make you admit that,
+Chancellor Bear?"
+
+Thus the Baroness, standing at her drawing-room window, would amuse
+herself in odd moments, when she was not arranging original and
+elaborate entertainments for her guests. And she congratulated herself
+particularly on having had the forethought to invite Egon von
+Breitstein, the Chancellor's half-brother.
+
+There was a barrier of thirty-six years' difference in age between the
+two, and they had never been friends in the true sense of the word,
+for the old man was temperamentally unable to sympathize with the
+tastes, or understand the temptations of the younger brother, and the
+younger man was mentally unable to appreciate the qualities of the
+elder.
+
+Nevertheless it was rumored at court that Iron Heart had more than
+once used the gay and good-looking Captain of Cavalry for a catspaw in
+pulling some very big and hot chestnuts out of the fire. At all events
+"Handsome Egon," so known among his followers, "the Chancellor's
+Jackal" (thus nicknamed by his enemies) would have found difficulty in
+keeping up appearances without the allowance granted by his powerful
+half-brother. The ill-assorted pair were often in communication, and
+the Baroness liked to think that news fresh from Lyndalberg must
+sooner or later be wafted like a wind-blown scent of roses across the
+water to Schloss Breitstein.
+
+She was still less displeased than surprised, therefore, when--the
+Emperor having been three days at Lyndalberg, with two more days of
+his visit to run--an urgent message arrived for Captain von Breitstein
+from his brother.
+
+Poor old Lorenz was wrestling with his enemy gout, it appeared, and
+wished for Egon's immediate presence.
+
+Such a summons could not be neglected. Egon's whole future depended
+upon his half-brother's caprice, he hinted to the Baroness in asking
+leave to desert her pleasant party for a few hours. So of course she
+sent the Chancellor her regrets, with the Baron's; and Egon went off
+charged with a friendly message from the Emperor as well.
+
+When the Captain of Cavalry had set out from Lyndalberg to Schloss
+Breitstein by the shortest way--across the lake in a smart little
+motor-boat--promising to be back in time for dinner and a concert, the
+Baroness spent all her energy in getting up an impromptu riding-party,
+which would give Leopold the chance of another tete-a-tete with Miss
+Mowbray.
+
+Already many such chances had been arranged, so cleverly as not to
+excite gossip; and if the flirtation (destined by the hostess to
+disgust Leopold with his Chancellor's matrimonial projects) did not
+advance by leaps and bounds, it was certainly not the fault of
+Baroness von Lyndal.
+
+"Egon has been told to use his eyes and ears for all they're worth at
+Lyndalberg, and now he's called upon to hand in his first report," she
+said to herself, when the younger von Breitstein was off on his
+mission across the lake.
+
+But for once, at least, the "Chancellor's Jackal" was wronged by
+unjust suspicion. He arrived at Schloss Breitstein ignorant of his
+brother's motive in sending for him, though he shrewdly suspected it
+to be something quite different from the one alleged.
+
+The Chancellor was in his study, a deep windowed, tower room, with
+walls book-lined nearly to the cross-beamed ceiling. He sat reading a
+budget of letters when Egon was announced, and if he were really ill,
+he did not betray his suffering. The square face, with its beetling
+brows, eyes of somber fire, and forehead impressive as a cathedral
+dome, showed no new lines graven by pain.
+
+"Sit down, Egon," he said, abruptly, tearing in half an envelope
+stamped with the head of Hungaria's King. "I'll be ready for you in a
+moment."
+
+The young man took the least uncomfortable chair in the room, which
+from his point of view was to say little in its favor; because the
+newest piece of furniture there, has been made a hundred years before
+the world understood that lounging was not a crime. Over the high,
+stone mantel hung a shield, so brightly polished as to fulfil the
+office of a mirror, and from where Egon sat, perforce upright and
+rigid, he could see himself vignetted in reflection.
+
+He admired his fresh color, which was like a girl's, pointed the waxed
+ends of his mustache with nervous, cigarette-stained fingers, and
+thinking of many agreeable things, from baccarat to roulette, from
+roulette to races, and races to pretty women, he wondered which he had
+to thank for this summons to the Chancellor. Unfortunately, brother
+Lorenz knew everything; one's pleasant peccadilloes buzzed to his ears
+like flies; there was little hope of deceiving him.
+
+Egon sighed, and his eyes turned mechanically from his own visage on
+shining steel, to the letter held in an old hand so veined that it
+reminded the young man of a rock netted with the sprawling roots of
+ancient trees. He had just time to recognize the writing as that of
+Adalbert, Crown Prince of Hungaria, whom he knew slightly, when keen
+eyes curtained with furled and wrinkled lids, glanced up from the
+letter.
+
+"It's coming," thought Egon. "What can the old chap have found out?"
+
+But to his surprise the Chancellor's first words had no connection
+with him or his misdeeds.
+
+"So our Emperor is amusing himself at Lyndalberg?"
+
+Egon's face brightened. He could be cunning in emergencies, but he was
+not clever, and always he felt himself at a disadvantage with the old
+statesman. Unless he had a special favor to ask, he generally
+preferred discussing the affairs of others with the Chancellor, rather
+than allowing attention to be attracted to his own. "Oh yes," he
+answered, brightly. "His Majesty is amusing himself uncommonly well. I
+never saw him in as brilliant spirits. But you, dear Lorenz. Tell me
+about yourself. Is your gout--"
+
+"The devil take my gout!"
+
+Egon started. "A good thing if he did, provided he left you behind,"
+he retorted, meaning exactly the opposite, as he often did when trying
+to measure wits with the Chancellor. "But you sent for me--"
+
+"Don't tell me you supposed I sent for you because I wanted
+consolation or condolence?"
+
+"No-o," laughed Egon, uneasily. "I fancied there was some other more
+pressing reason. But I'm bound in common courtesy to take your
+sincerity for granted until you undeceive me."
+
+"Hang common courtesy between you and me," returned the Bear. "I've
+nothing to conceal. I sent for you to tell me what mischief that
+witch-cat Mechtilde von Lyndal is plotting. You're on the spot. Trust
+you for seeing everything that goes on--the one thing I would trust
+you to do."
+
+"Thanks," said Egon.
+
+"Don't thank me yet, however grateful you may be. But I don't mind
+hinting that it won't be the worse for you, if for once you've used
+those fine eyes of yours to some useful purpose."
+
+Egon was genuinely astonished at this turn of the conversation, as he
+had been carefully arming himself against a personal attack from any
+one of several directions. He sat pointing the sharp ends of his
+mustache, one after the other, and trying to remember some striking
+incident with which to adorn a more or less accurate narrative.
+
+"What would you call useful?" he inquired at last.
+
+The Chancellor answered, but indirectly. "Has the Emperor been playing
+the fool at Lyndalberg, these last few days?"
+
+"Do you want to make me guilty of _lese Majeste_?" Egon raised his
+eyebrows; but he was recovering presence of mind. "If by playing the
+fool, though, you mean falling in love, why then, brother, I should
+say he had done little else during the three days; and perhaps even
+the first of those was not the beginning."
+
+The Chancellor growled out a word which he would hardly have uttered
+in the Imperial presence, particularly in the connection he suggested.
+"Let me hear exactly what has been going on from day's end to day's
+end," he commanded.
+
+Egon grew thoughtful once more. Clearly, here was the explanation of
+the summons. He was to be let off easily, it appeared; but, suspense
+relieved, he was not ready to be satisfied with negative blessings.
+
+"Are you sure it isn't a bit like telling tales out of school?" he
+objected.
+
+"School-boys--with empty pockets--have been known to do that," said
+the Chancellor. "But perhaps your pockets aren't empty--eh?"
+
+"They're in a chronic state of emptiness," groaned Egon.
+
+"On the fifteenth day of October your quarterly allowance will be
+paid," remarked his brother. "I would increase the instalment by the
+amount of five thousand gulden, if that would make it worth your while
+to talk--and forget nothing but your scruples."
+
+"Oh, you know I'm always delighted to please you!" exclaimed Egon.
+"It's only natural, living the monotonous life you do when you're not
+busy with the affairs of state, that you should like to hear what goes
+on in the world outside. Of course, I'll gladly do my best as a
+_raconteur_."
+
+"My dear young man, don't lie," said the Chancellor. "The habit is
+growing on you. You lie even to yourself. By and by you'll believe
+yourself, and then all hope for your soul will be over. What I want to
+know is; how far the Emperor has gone in his infatuation for this
+English girl. I'm not afraid to speak plainly to you, so you may
+safely--and profitably--do the same with me. In the first place I'll
+put you at your ease by making a humiliating confession. The other
+night the woman von Lyndal tried to 'draw me,' as she would express
+it, on this subject, and I'm bitterly mortified to say she partly
+succeeded. She suggested an entanglement between Leopold and the girl.
+I replied that Leopold wasn't the man to pull down a hornet's nest of
+gossip around the ears of a young woman who had saved his life. No
+matter what his inclinations might be, I insisted that he would pay
+her no repeated visits. This thrust the fair Mechtilde parried--as if
+repeating a mere rumor--by saying that she believed the girl was to
+stay at the country house of some old friend of the Emperor. At the
+time, I attached little importance to her chatter, believing that she
+merely wished to give me a spiteful slap or two, as is her habit when
+she has the chance. For once, though, she has succeeded in stealing a
+march upon me; and she kept the secret of her plan until too late for
+me to have any hope of preventing Leopold from fulfilling his
+engagement at her house. After that was safely arranged, I don't doubt
+she was overjoyed that I should guess her plot."
+
+"Do you think that, even if you'd known sooner, you could have stopped
+the Emperor from visiting at Lyndalberg?" asked Egon. "I know that you
+are iron; but he is steel."
+
+"I would have stopped him," returned the Chancellor. "I should have
+made no bones about the reason; for I've found that the best way with
+Leopold is to blurt out the whole truth, and fight him--my experience
+against his will. If advice and warning hadn't sufficed to restrain
+him from insulting the girl who is to be his wife, and injuring the
+reputation of the girl who never can be, I would have devised some
+expedient to thwart him, for his own good. I'm not a man to give up
+when I feel that I am right."
+
+"Neither is he," Egon added. "But since you seem so determined to nip
+this dainty blossom of love in the bud, we'll hope it's not yet too
+late for a sharp frost to blight it."
+
+"I sent for you," said the Chancellor, brushing away metaphor with an
+impatient gesture, "to show me the precise spot on which to lay my
+finger."
+
+"I'll do my best to deserve your confidence," responded Egon,
+gracefully. "Let me see, where shall I begin? Well, as you know, it's
+simpler for the Emperor to see a good deal of the woman he admires, at
+a friend's house than almost anywhere else, in his own country. This
+particular woman risked her life to save his; and it's so natural for
+him to be gracious in return, that people would be surprised if he
+were not. There's so much in their favor, at the commencement.
+
+"Miss Mowbray and her mother arrived at Lyndalberg before the Emperor,
+had made friends there, and were ready for the campaign. The girl is
+undoubtedly beautiful--the prettiest creature I think I ever saw--and
+she has a winning way which takes with women as well as men. Not one
+of her fellow-guests seems to put a wrong construction on her
+flirtation with the Emperor, or his with her. The other men would
+think him blind if he didn't admire her as much as they do; and none
+of the women there are of the sort to be jealous. So, are you sure,
+Lorenz, that you're not taking too serious a view of the affair?"
+
+"It can't be taken too seriously, considering the circumstances. I've
+told you my plans for the Emperor's future. Princesses are women, and
+gossip is hydra-headed. When the lady hears--she who has been allowed
+to understand that the Emperor of Rhaetia only waits for a suitable
+opportunity of formally asking for her hand--for she will surely hear,
+that he has seized this very moment for his first _liason_, I tell you
+neither she nor her people are likely to accept the statement meekly.
+She's half German; on her father's side a cousin not too distant of
+William II. She's half English; on her mother's side related to the
+King through the line of the Stuarts. And in her there's a dash of
+American blood which comes from a famous grandmother, who was
+descended from George Washington, a man as proud, and with the right
+to be as proud, as any King. All three countries would have reason to
+resent such an ungallant slight from Rhaetia."
+
+"The little affair must be hushed up," said Egon.
+
+"It must be stopped, and at once," said the Chancellor.
+
+"Ach!" sighed the young man, with as much meaning in the long drawn
+breath, as the elder might care to read. And if it did not discourage,
+it at least irritated him. "Go on!" he exclaimed sharply. "Go on with
+your sorry tale."
+
+"After all, when one comes to the telling, there isn't a very great
+deal one can put into cut-and-dried words," explained Egon. "At table,
+the Emperor has his hostess on one side and his fair preserver on the
+other. The two talk as much together during meals as etiquette allows,
+and perhaps a little more. Then, as the Emperor has been often at
+Lyndalberg, he can act as cicerone for a stranger. He has shown Miss
+Mowbray all the beauties of the place. He gathers her roses in the
+rose garden; he has guided her through the grottoes. He has piloted
+her through the labyrinth; he has told her which are the best dogs in
+the kennels; and has given her the history of all the horses in the
+Baron's stables. I know this from the table talk. He has explored the
+lake with Miss Mowbray and her mother in a motor-boat; perhaps you saw
+the party? And whether or no he brought his automobile to Lyndalberg
+on purpose, in any case he's had the Mowbrays out in it several times
+already. One would hardly think he could have found a chance to do so
+much in such a short time; but our Emperor is a man of action.
+Yesterday we had a picnic at the Seebachfall, to see Thorwaldsen's
+Undine. Leopold and Miss Mowbray being splendid climbers, reached the
+statue on the height over the fall long before the rest of us. At
+starting, however, I was close behind with the Baroness, and overheard
+some joke between the two, about a mountain and a cow. The Emperor
+spoke of milking as a fine art, and said he'd lately been taking
+lessons. They laughed a great deal at this, and it was plain that
+they were on terms of comradeship. When a young man and a girl have a
+secret understanding--even the most innocent one--it puts them apart
+from others.
+
+"Last night there were fireworks on the lake. The Emperor and Miss
+Mowbray watched them together, for everything was conducted most
+informally. Afterwards we had an impromptu cotillion, with three or
+four pretty new figures invented by the Baroness. The Emperor gave
+Miss Mowbray several favors, and one was a buckle of enameled
+forget-me-nots. This morning there was tennis. The Emperor and Miss
+Mowbray played together. They were both so skilful, it was a pleasure
+to watch them. At luncheon they each ate a double almond out of one
+shell, had a game over it, and Leopold caught Miss Mowbray napping.
+That brings us to the moment of my coming to you. For the afternoon, I
+fancy the Baroness was getting up a riding party; and this evening
+unless they're too tired, she'll perhaps get up an amateur concert at
+which Miss Mowbray will sing. The girl has a delicious voice."
+
+"The creature must be a fool, or an adventuress," pronounced the
+Chancellor. "If she has kept her senses she ought to know that
+nothing can come of this folly--except sorrow or scandal."
+
+Egon shrugged his stiffly padded, military shoulders. "I have always
+found that a woman in love doesn't stop to count the cost."
+
+"So! You fancy her 'in love' with the Emperor."
+
+"With the man, rather than the Emperor, if I'm a judge of character."
+
+"Which you're not!" Iron Heart brusquely disposed of that suggestion.
+"The merest school-girl could pull wool over your eyes, if she cared
+to take the trouble."
+
+"This one doesn't care a rap. She hardly knows that I exist."
+
+"Humph!" The Chancellor's eyes appraised his young brother's features.
+"That's a pity. You might have tried cutting the Emperor out. Her
+affair with him can have no happy ending; while you, in spite of all
+your faults, with your good looks, our position, and my money,
+wouldn't be a bad match for an ambitious girl."
+
+"Your money?"
+
+"I mean, should I choose to make you my heir, and I would choose, if
+you married to please me. Who are these Mowbrays?"
+
+"I haven't had the curiosity to inquire into their antecedents," said
+Egon. "I only know that they're ladies, that they must be of some
+consequence in their own country, or they couldn't have got the
+letters of introduction they have; and that the girl is the prettiest
+on earth."
+
+"Mechtilde talked to me, I remember, a good deal about those letters
+of introduction," the Chancellor reflected aloud. "But Rhaetia is a
+long cry from England; and letters might be forged. I've known such
+things to be done. Fetch me a big red volume you'll find on the third
+shelf from the floor, at the left of the south window. You can't miss
+it. It's 'Burke's Peerage.'"
+
+Egon rose with alacrity to obey. He was rather thoughtful, for his
+brother had put an entirely new and exciting idea into his head.
+
+Presently the red volume was discovered and laid on the desk before
+the Chancellor, who turned the leaves over until he found the page
+desired. As his eye fell upon the long line of Mowbrays, his face
+changed and the bristling brows came together in a grizzled line.
+Apparently the women were not adventuresses, at least in the ordinary
+acceptation of the term.
+
+There they were; his square-tipped finger pressed down upon the
+printed names with a dig that might have signified his disposition
+toward their representatives.
+
+"The girl's mother is the widow of Reginald, sixth Baron Mowbray," the
+old man muttered half aloud. "Son, Reginald Edward, fifteen years of
+age. Daughter, Helen Augusta, twenty-eight. Aha! She's no chicken,
+this young lady. She ought to be a woman of the world."
+
+"Twenty-eight!" replied Egon. "I'll eat my hat if she's twenty-eight."
+
+"Doesn't she look it, by daylight?"
+
+"Not an hour over nineteen. Might be younger. Jove, I was never so
+surprised to learn a woman's age! By the by, I heard her telling Baron
+von Lyndal last night, apropos of our great Rhaetian victory, that she
+was eleven years old on the day it took place. That would make her
+about twenty now. When she spoke, I remember she gave a look at her
+mother, across the room, as though she were frightened. I suppose she
+was hoping there was no copy of this big red book at Lyndalberg."
+
+"That thought might have been in her mind," assented the Chancellor,
+"or else she--" He left his sentence unfinished, and sat with unseeing
+eyes fixed in an owlish stare on the open page of Burke.
+
+"I should like to know if you really meant what you said about my
+marriage a little while ago." Egon ventured to attract his brother's
+attention. "Because if you did--"
+
+"If I did--"
+
+"I might try very hard to please you in my choice of a wife."
+
+"Be a little more implicit. You mean, you would try to prove to Miss
+Mowbray that a Captain of Cavalry in the hand is worth an Emperor in
+the bush--a bramble-brush at that, eh?"
+
+"Yes. I would do my best. And as you say, I'm not without advantages."
+
+"You are not. I was on the point of suggesting that you made the most
+of them in Miss Mowbray's eyes--_until you brought me this red book_."
+
+The large forefinger tapped the page of Mowbrays, while two lines
+which might have meant amusement, or a sneer, scored themselves on
+either side the Chancellor's mouth.
+
+"And now--you've changed your mind?" There was disappointment in
+Egon's voice.
+
+"I don't say that. I say only, 'Wait.' Make yourself as agreeable to
+the lady as you like. But don't pledge yourself, and don't count upon
+my promise or my money, until you hear again. By that time--well, we
+shall see what we shall see. Keep your hand in. But wait--wait."
+
+"How long am I to wait? If the thing's to be done at all, it must be
+done soon, for meanwhile, the Emperor makes all the running."
+
+The Chancellor looked up again from the red book, his fist still
+covering the Mowbrays, as if they were to be extinguished. "You are to
+wait," he said, "until I've had answers to a couple of telegrams I
+shall send to-night."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+VIRGINIA'S GREAT MOMENT
+
+
+The first and second dressing gongs had sounded at Schloss Lyndalberg
+on the evening of the day after Egon von Breitstein's visit to his
+brother, and the Grand Duchess was beginning to wonder uneasily what
+kept her daughter, when ringed fingers tapped on the panel of the
+door.
+
+"Come in!" she answered, and Virginia appeared, still in the white
+tennis dress she had worn that afternoon. She stood for an instant
+without speaking, her face so radiantly beautiful that her mother
+thought it seemed illumined from a light within.
+
+It had been on the lips of the Grand Duchess to scold the girl for her
+tardiness, since to be late was an unpardonable offense, with an
+Imperial Majesty in the house. But in that radiance the words died.
+
+"Virginia, what is it? You look--I scarcely know how you look. But
+you make me feel that something has happened."
+
+The Princess came slowly across the room, smiling softly, with an air
+of one who walks in sleep. Hardly conscious of what she did, she sank
+down in a big chair, and sat resting her elbows on her knees, her chin
+nestling between her two palms, like a pink-white rose in its calyx.
+
+"You may go, Ernestine," said the Grand Duchess to her maid. "I'll
+ring when I want you again."
+
+The elaborate process of waving and dressing her still abundant hair
+had fortunately come to a successful end, and Ernestine had just
+caused a diamond star to rise above her forehead. She was in a robe de
+chambre, and the rest of her toilet could wait till curiosity was
+satisfied.
+
+But Virginia still sat dreaming, her happy eyes far away. The Grand
+Duchess had to speak twice before the girl heard, and started a
+little. "My daughter--have you anything to tell me?"
+
+The Princess roused herself. "Nothing, Mother, really. Except that I'm
+the happiest girl on earth."
+
+"Why--what has he said?"
+
+"Not one word that any one mightn't have listened to. But I know now.
+He does care. And I think he will say something before we part."
+
+"There's only one more day of his visit here, after to-night."
+
+"One whole long, beautiful day--together."
+
+"But after all, dearest," argued her mother, "what do you expect? If
+in truth you were only Miss Mowbray, marriage between you and the
+Emperor would be out of the question. You've never gone into the
+subject of your feelings about this, quite thoroughly with me, and I
+do wish I knew precisely what you hope for from him; what you will
+consider the--the keystone of the situation?"
+
+"Only for him to say that he loves me," Virginia confessed. "If I'm
+right--if I've brought something new into his life, something which
+has shown him that his heart's as important as his head, then there
+will come a moment when he can keep silence no longer--when he'll be
+forced to say; 'I love you, dear, and because we can't belong to each
+other, day is turned into night for me.' Then, when that moment comes,
+the tide of my fortune will be at its flood. I shall tell him that I
+love him too. And I shall tell him _all the truth_."
+
+"You'll tell him who we really are?"
+
+"Yes. And why I've been masquerading. That it was because, ever since
+I was a little girl, he'd been the one man in the world for me;
+because, when our marriage was suggested through official channels, I
+made up my mind that I must win him first through love, or live single
+all my days."
+
+"What if he should be vexed at the deception, and refuse to forgive
+you? You know, darling, we shall be in a rather curious position when
+everything comes out, as we have made all our friends here under the
+name of Mowbray. Of course, the excuse for what we did is, that our
+real position is a hundred times higher than the one we assumed, and
+all those to whom we've been introduced would be delighted to know us
+in our own characters, at the end. But Leopold is a man, not a
+romantic girl, as you are. He has always had a reputation for pride
+and austerity, for being just before he would let himself be generous;
+and it may be that to one of his nature, a wild whim like yours--"
+
+"You think of him as he was before we met, not as he is now, if you
+fancy he could be hard with a woman he really loved," said Virginia,
+eagerly. "He'll forgive me, dear. I've no fear of him any more.
+To-night, I've no fear of anything. He loves me--and--I'm Empress of
+the world."
+
+"Many women would be satisfied with Rhaetia," was the practical
+response which jumped into the mind of the Grand Duchess; but she
+would throw no more cold water upon the rose-flame of her daughter's
+exaltation. She kissed the girl on the forehead, breathing a few words
+of motherly sympathy; but when the Princess had flown off to her own
+room to dress, she shook her diamond-starred head doubtfully.
+
+Virginia's plan sounded poetical, and as easy to carry out as to turn
+a kaleidoscope and form a charming new combination of color; or so it
+had seemed while the young voice pleaded. But, when the happy face and
+radiant eyes no longer illumined the path, the way ahead seemed dark.
+
+To be sure the Princess had so far walked triumphantly along the
+high-road to success, but it was not always a good beginning which led
+to a good end; and the Grand Duchess felt, as she rang for Ernestine,
+that her nerves would be strained to breaking point until matters were
+definitely settled, for better or for worse.
+
+Virginia had never been lovelier than she was that night at dinner,
+and Egon von Breitstein's admiration for her beauty had in it a
+fascinating new ingredient. Until yesterday, he had said to himself,
+"If she be not fair to me, what care I how fair she be?" But now,
+there was a vague idea that she might after all be for him, and he
+took enormous pleasure in the thought that he was falling in love with
+a girl who had captured the Emperor's heart.
+
+Egon glanced very often at Leopold, contrasting his sovereign's
+appearance unfavorably with his own. The Emperor was thin and dark,
+with a grave cast of feature, while Egon's face kept the color and
+youthfulness of the early twenties. He was older than Leopold, but he
+looked a boy. Alma Tadema would have wreathed him with vine leaves,
+draped him with tiger skins, and set him down on a marble bench
+against a burning sapphire sky, where he would have appeared more
+suitably clad than in the stiff blue and silver uniform of a crack
+Rhaetian regiment.
+
+Leopold, on the contrary, would never be painted except as a soldier;
+and it seemed to Egon that no normal girl could help thinking him a
+far handsomer fellow than the Emperor. For the moment, of course,
+Miss Mowbray did not notice him, because his Imperial Majesty loomed
+large in the foreground of her imagination; but the Chancellor had
+evidently a plan in his head for removing that stately obstacle into
+the dim perspective.
+
+Egon had not heard Miss Mowbray spoken of as an heiress, therefore,
+even had there been no Emperor in the way, he would not have worshiped
+at the shrine. But now, behold the shrine, attractive before, newly
+and alluringly decked! Egon wondered much over his half-brother's
+apparently impulsive offer, and the contradictory command, which had,
+a little later, enjoined waiting.
+
+He was delighted, however, that he had not been forbidden to make
+himself agreeable; and his idea was, as soon as dinner should be over,
+to find a place at Miss Mowbray's side before any other man should
+have time to take it. But unluckily for this plan, Baron von Lyndal
+detained him for a few moments with praise of a new remedy which might
+cure the Chancellor's gout; and when he escaped from his host to look
+for Miss Mowbray in the white drawing-room she was not there.
+
+From the music room adjoining, however, came sounds which drew him
+toward the door. He knew Miss Mowbray's soft, coaxing touch on the
+piano: she was there, "playing in a whisper," as he had heard her call
+it. Perhaps she was going to sing, as she had once or twice before,
+and would need some one to turn the pages of her music. Egon thought
+that he would much like to be the some one, and was in the act of
+parting the white velvet portieres that covered the doorway, when his
+hostess smilingly beckoned him away.
+
+"The Emperor has just asked Miss Mowbray to teach him some
+old-fashioned Scotch or English air (I'm afraid I don't quite know the
+difference!) called 'Annie Laurie,'" the Baroness explained. "He was
+charmed with it when she sang the other evening, and I've been
+assuring him that the song would exactly suit his voice. We mustn't
+disturb them while the lesson is going on. Tell me--I've hardly had a
+moment to ask you--how did you find the Chancellor?"
+
+Chained to a forced allegiance, Egon mechanically answered the
+questions of the Baroness without making absurd mistakes, the while
+his ears burned to hear what was going on behind the white curtain.
+
+Everybody knew of the music lesson, now, and chatted in tones of
+tactful monotony, never speaking too loudly to disturb the singers,
+never too cautiously, lest they should seem to listen. Once, and then
+again, the creamy _mezzo soprano_ and the rich tenor that was almost a
+baritone, sang conscientiously through the verses of "Annie Laurie"
+from beginning to end; then a few desultory chords were struck on the
+piano; and at last there was silence behind the white curtains, in the
+music room.
+
+Were the two still there? To interrupt such a tete-a-tete seemed out
+of the question, but not to know what was happening Egon found too
+hard to bear, and the arrival of a telegram for Lady Mowbray came as
+opportunely as if Providence had had his special needs in mind.
+
+Evidently it was not a pleasant telegram, for, as she read it, the
+Dresden china lady showed plainly that she was disconcerted. Her
+pretty face lost its color; her eyes dilated as if she had tasted a
+drop of belladonna on sugar; she patted her lips with her lace
+handkerchief, and finally rose from her chair, looking dazed and
+distressed.
+
+"I've had rather bad news," she admitted to Baroness von Lyndal, who
+was all solicitude. "Oh, nothing really serious, I trust, but still,
+disquieting. It is from a dear friend. I think I had better go to my
+room, and talk things over with Helen. Would you be kind enough to
+tell her when she comes in that she's to follow me there? Don't send
+for her till then; it's not necessary. But I shall want her by and
+by."
+
+It was clear that Lady Mowbray did not wish her daughter to be
+disturbed. Still, Egon von Breitstein thought he might fairly let his
+anxiety run away with him. As the Baroness accompanied her guest to
+the door, he took it upon himself to search for Miss Mowbray, for now,
+if the Emperor should curse him for a spoil-sport, he would have the
+best of excuses. Lady Mowbray was in need of her daughter.
+
+He lifted the white curtain and peeped through a small ante-chamber
+into the music room beyond. It was empty; but one of the long windows
+leading into the rose garden was wide open.
+
+The month of September was dying, and away in the Rhaetian mountains
+winter had begun; yet in the lap of the low country summer lingered.
+The air was soft, and sweet with the perfume of roses, roses living,
+and roses dead in a potpourri of scattered petals on the grass. It
+was a garden for lovers, and a night for lovers.
+
+Egon went to the open window and looked out, but dared not let his
+feet take the direction of his eyes, though he was sure that somewhere
+in the garden Miss Mowbray and the Emperor were to be found.
+
+"They will come in again this way," he said to himself, "for they will
+want people to think they have never left the music room; and for that
+very reason they won't stop too long. They must have some regard for
+the conventions. If I wait--"
+
+He did not finish the sentence in his mind; nevertheless he examined
+the resources of the window niche with a critical eye.
+
+There was a deep enclosure between the window frame and the long,
+straight curtains of olive green satin which matched the decoration of
+the music room. By drawing the curtains a few inches further forward,
+one could make a screen which would hide one from observation by any
+person in the room, or outside, in the garden. So Egon did draw the
+curtain, and framed in his shelter like a saint in a niche, he stood
+peering into the silver night.
+
+The moon was rising over the lake, and long, pale rays of level light
+were stealing up the paths, like the fingers of a blind child that
+caress gropingly the features of a beloved face.
+
+Egon could not see the whole garden, or all the paths among the roses;
+but if the Emperor and his companion came back by the way they had
+gone, he would know presently whether they walked in the attitude of
+friends or lovers. It was so necessary for his plans to know this,
+that he thought it worth while to exercise a little patience in
+waiting. Of course, if they were lovers, good-by to his hopes; and he
+would never have so good a chance as this to make sure.
+
+All things in the garden that were not white were gray as a dove's
+wings. Even the shadows were not black. And the sky was gray, with the
+soft gray of velvet, under a crust of diamonds which flashed as the
+spangles on a woman's fan flash, when it trembles in her hand.
+
+White moths, happily ignorant that summer would come no more for them,
+drifted out from the shadows like rose petals blown by the soft wind.
+On a trellis, a crowding sisterhood of pale roses drooped their heads
+downward _in memento mori_. It was a silver night; a night of
+enchantment.
+
+Leopold had meant to take Virginia out only to see the moon rise over
+the water, turning the great smooth sheet of jet into a silver shield;
+for there had been clouds or spurts of rain on other nights, and he
+had said to himself that never again, perhaps, would they two stand
+together under the white spell of the moon. He had meant to keep her
+for five minutes, or ten at the most, and then to bring her back; but
+they had walked down to the path which girdled the cliff above the
+lake. The moon touched her golden hair and her pure face like a
+benediction. He dared not look at her thus for long, and when there
+came a sudden quick rustling in the grass at their feet, he bent down,
+glad of any change in the current of his thoughts.
+
+Some tiny, winged thing of the night sought a lodging in a bell-shaped
+flower whose blue color the moon had drunk, and as Leopold stooped,
+the same impulse made Virginia bend.
+
+He stretched out his hand to gather the low-growing branch of
+blossoms, which he would give the girl as a souvenir of this hour, and
+their fingers met. Lake and garden swam before the eyes of the
+Princess as the Emperor's hand closed over hers.
+
+Her great moment had come; yet now that it was here, womanlike she
+wished it away--not gone forever, oh no, but waiting just round the
+corner of the future.
+
+"The flowers are yours--I give them to you," she laughed, as if she
+fancied it was in eagerness to grasp the disputed spray that he had
+pressed her fingers.
+
+"You are the one flower I want--flower of all the world," he answered,
+in a choked voice, speaking words he had not meant to speak; but the
+ice barriers that held back the torrent of which he had told her, had
+melted long ago and now had been swept away. Other barriers which he
+had built up in their place--his convictions, his duty as a man at the
+head of a nation--were gone too. "I love you," he stammered, "I love
+you far better than my life, which you saved. I've loved you ever
+since our first hour together on the mountain, but every day my love
+has grown a thousand fold, until now it's greater and higher than any
+mountain. I can fight against myself no longer. I thought I was
+strong, but this love is stronger than I am. Say that you care for
+me--only say that."
+
+"I do care," Virginia whispered. She had prayed for this, lived for
+this, and she was drowning in happiness. Yet she had pictured a
+different scene, a scene of storm and stress. She had heard in fancy
+broken words of sorrow and noble renunciation on his lips, and in
+anticipating his suffering she had felt the joy her revelation would
+give. "I care--so much, so much! How hard it will be to part."
+
+"If you care, then we shall not be parted," said Leopold.
+
+The Princess looked up at him in wonder, holding back as he would have
+caught her in his arms. What could he mean? What plan was in his mind
+that, believing her to be Helen Mowbray, yet made it possible for him
+to reassure her so?
+
+"I don't understand," she faltered. "You are the Emperor, and I am no
+more than--"
+
+"You are my wife, if you love me."
+
+In the shock of her ecstatic surprise she was helpless to resist him
+longer, and he held her close and passionately, his lips on her hair,
+her face crushed against his heart. She could hear it beating, feel it
+throb under her cheek. His wife? Then he loved her enough for that.
+Yet how was it possible for him to stand ready, for her sake, to
+override the laws of his own land?
+
+"My darling--my wife!" he said again. "To think that you love me."
+
+"I have loved you from the first," the Princess confessed, "but I was
+afraid you would feel, even if you cared, that we must say good-by.
+Now--" And in an instant the whole truth would have been out; but the
+word "good-by" stabbed him, and he could not let it pass.
+
+"We shall not say good-by, not for an hour," he cried. "After this I
+could not lose you. There's nothing to prevent my being your husband,
+you my wife. Would to God you were of Royal blood, and you should be
+my Empress--the fairest Empress that poet or historian ever saw--but
+we're prisoners of Fate, you and I. We must take the goods the gods
+provide. My goddess you will always be, but the Empress of Rhaetia,
+even my love isn't powerful enough to make you. If I am to you only
+half what you are to me, you'll be satisfied with the empire of my
+heart."
+
+Suddenly the warm blood in Virginia's veins grew chill. It was as if a
+wind had blown up from the dark depths of the lake, to strike like ice
+into her soul. An instant more and he would have known that she was a
+Princess of the Blood, and through his whole life she could have gone
+on worshiping him because he had been ready to break down all barriers
+for her love, before he guessed there need be none to break. Now her
+warm impulse of gratitude was frozen by the biting blast of
+disillusionment; but still there was hope left. It might be that she
+misunderstood him. She would not judge him yet.
+
+"The empire of your heart," she echoed. "If that were mine I should be
+richer than with all the treasures of the earth. If you were Leo, the
+chamois hunter, I would love you as I love you now, because in
+yourself you are the one man for me; and I'd go with you to the end of
+the world, as your wife. But you're not the chamois hunter; you are
+the man I love, yet you are the Emperor. Being the Emperor, had you
+talked of a hopeless love and a promise not to forget, having nothing
+else to give me, because of your high destiny and my humbler one, I
+could still have been happy. Yet you speak of more than that. You
+speak of something I can't understand. It seems to me that what a
+Royal man offers the woman he loves should be all or nothing."
+
+"I do offer you all," said Leopold. "All myself, my life, the heart
+and soul of me--all that's my own to give. The rest--belongs to
+Rhaetia."
+
+"Then what do you mean by--"
+
+"Don't you understand, my sweet, that I've asked you to be my wife?
+What can a man ask more of a woman?"
+
+"Your wife--but not the Empress. How can the two be apart?"
+
+He tried to take her once more in his arms, but when he saw that she
+would not have it so, he held his love in check, and waited. He was
+sure that he would not need to wait long, for not only had he laid his
+love at her feet, but had pledged himself to a tremendous sacrifice on
+love's altar.
+
+The step which in a moment of passion he had now resolved to take
+would create dissension among his people, alienate one who had been
+his second father, rouse England, America and Germany to anger,
+because of the Princess whose name rumor had already coupled with his,
+and raise in every direction a storm of disapproval. When this girl
+whom he loved realized the immensity of the concession he was making
+because of his reverent love for her, she would give her life to him,
+now and forever.
+
+Tenderly he took her hand and lifted it to his lips; then, when
+she did not draw it away (because he was to have his chance of
+explanation) he held it between both his own, as he talked on.
+
+"Dearest one," he said, "when I first knew I loved you--loved you as I
+didn't dream I could love a woman--for your sake and my own, I would
+have avoided meeting you too often. This I tell you frankly. I didn't
+see how, in honor, such a love could end except in despair for me, and
+sorrow even for you, if you should come to care. Had you and Lady
+Mowbray stayed on at the hotel in Kronburg, I think I could have held
+to my resolve. But when Baroness von Lyndal suggested your coming
+here, my heart leaped up. I said in my mind, 'At least I shall have
+the joy of seeing her every day, for a time, without doing anything to
+darken her future. Afterwards, when she has gone out of my life, I
+shall have that radiance to remember. And so no harm will be done in
+the end, except that I shall have to pay, by suffering.' Still, I had
+no thought of the future without a parting; I felt that inevitable.
+And the suffering came hand in hand with the joy, for not a night
+here at Lyndalberg have I slept. If I had been weak, I should have
+groaned aloud in the agony of renunciation.
+
+"My rooms open on a lawn. More than once I've come out into the
+darkness, when all the household was sleeping. Some times I have
+walked to this very spot where you and I stand now--heart to heart for
+the first time, my darling--asking myself whether there were any way
+out of the labyrinth. It was not until I brought you here and saw you
+by my side with the moon rays for a crown, that a flash of blinding
+light seemed to pierce the clouds. Suddenly I saw all things clearly,
+and though there will be difficulties, I count them as overcome."
+
+"Still you haven't answered my question," said Virginia in a low,
+strained voice.
+
+"I'm coming to that now. It was best that you should know first
+all that's been troubling my heart and brain during these few,
+bitter-sweet days which have taught me so much. You know, men who have
+their place at the head of great nations can't think first of
+themselves, or even of those they love better than themselves. If they
+hope to snatch at personal happiness, they must take the one way open
+to them, and be thankful.
+
+"Don't do me the horrible injustice to believe that I wouldn't be
+proud to show you to my subjects as their Empress; but instead, I can
+offer only what men of Royal blood for hundreds of years have offered
+to women whom they honored as well as loved. You must have heard even
+in England of what is called a morganatic marriage? It is that I offer
+you."
+
+With a cry of pain--the cruel pain of wounded, disappointed love--the
+Princess tore her hand from his.
+
+"Never!" she exclaimed. "It's an insult."
+
+"An insult? No, a thousand times no. I see that even now you don't
+understand."
+
+"I think that I understand very well, too well," said Virginia,
+brokenly. The beautiful fairy palace of happiness that she had watched
+as it grew, lay shattered, destroyed in the moment which ought to have
+seen its triumphant completion.
+
+[Illustration: _"Never!" she exclaimed. "It's an insult"_]
+
+"I tell you that you cannot understand, or you wouldn't say--you
+wouldn't dare to say, my love--that I'd insulted you. Don't you see,
+don't you know, that you would be my wife in the sight of all men,
+as well as in the sight of God."
+
+"Your wife, you call it!" the Princess gave a harsh little laugh which
+hurt as tears could not hurt. "You seem to have strange ideas of that
+word, which has always been sacred to me. A morganatic marriage! That
+is a mere pretense, an hypocrisy. I would be 'your wife,' you say. I
+would give you all my love, all my life. You, in return, would give
+me--your left hand. And you know well that, in a country which
+tolerates such a one-sided travesty of marriage, the laws would hold
+you free to marry another woman--a Royal woman, whom you could make an
+Empress--as free as if I had no existence."
+
+"Great Heaven, that you should speak so!" he broke out. "What if the
+law did hold me free? Can you dream--do you put me so low as to dream
+that my heart would hold me free? My soul would be bound to you
+forever."
+
+"So you may believe, now. But the knowledge that you could change
+would be death to me--a death to die daily. Yes, I tell you again, it
+was an insult to offer a lot so miserable, so contemptible, to a woman
+you profess to love. How could you do it? If only you had never
+spoken the hateful words! If only you had left me the ideal I had of
+you--noble, glorious, above the whole world of men. But after all you
+are selfish,--cruel. If you had said 'I love you, yet we must part,
+for Duty stands between us.' I could--but no, I can never tell you now
+what I could have answered if you had said that, instead of breaking
+my heart."
+
+Under the fire of her reproach he stood still, his lips tight, his
+shoulders braced, as if he held his breast open for the knife.
+
+"By Heaven, it is you who are cruel," he said at last. "How can I make
+you see your injustice?"
+
+"In no way. There's nothing more to be said between us two after this,
+except--good-by."
+
+"It shall not be good-by."
+
+"It must. I wish it."
+
+He had caught her dress as she turned to go, but now he released her.
+"You wish it? It's not true that you love me, then?"
+
+"It was true. Everything--everything in my whole life--is changed from
+this hour. It would be better if I'd never seen you. Good-by."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE MAN WHO WAITED
+
+
+She ran from him, along the moonlit path. One step he took as if to
+follow and keep her, but checked himself and let her go. Only his eyes
+went with her, and in them there was more of pain than anger, though
+never before in all his life, perhaps, had he been thwarted in any
+strong desire. Passion urged him forward, but pride held him back; for
+Leopold was a proud man, and to have his love thrown in his face, was
+to receive an icy douche with the blood at fever heat.
+
+For this girl's sake he had in a few days changed the habits of a
+lifetime. Pride, reserve, self-control, the wish not only to appear,
+but to be a man, above the frailties of common men, the ambition to be
+placed, and worthily placed, on a pedestal by his subjects; all these
+he had thrown away for Helen Mowbray.
+
+He was too just a man not to admit that, if one of his Royal cousins
+of younger branches, had contemplated such folly as this, he would
+have done his best to nip that folly while it was in bud. "He jests at
+scars who never felt a wound"; and until Leopold had learned by his
+own unlooked-for experience what love can mean, what men will do for
+love while the sweet madness is on them, he would have been utterly
+unable to understand the state of mind.
+
+A cousin inclined to act as he was now bent on acting, would but a
+month ago have found all the Emperor's influence, even force perhaps,
+brought to bear in restraining him. Leopold saw the change in himself,
+was startled and shamed by it; nevertheless he would have persevered,
+trampling down every obstacle that rose in his way, if only the girl
+had seen things with his eyes.
+
+She had accused him of insulting her, not stopping to consider that,
+even to make her morganatically his wife, he must give great cause for
+complaint not only to his ministers but to his people. For he was
+expected to marry a girl of Royal blood, that the country might have
+an heir. If Helen Mowbray had accepted the position he offered her,
+he could never have broken her heart by making another marriage.
+
+Not only would it be difficult in these days to find a Princess
+willing to tolerate such a rival, but it would have been impossible
+for him to desecrate the bond between himself and the one adored
+woman.
+
+This being the case, with Helen Mowbray as his morganatic wife, there
+could be no direct heir to the throne. At his death, the son of his
+uncle, the Archduke Joseph, would succeed; and during his life the
+popularity which was dear to him would be hopelessly forfeited.
+Rhaetia would never forgive him for selfishly preferring his own
+private happiness to the good of the nation.
+
+He could fancy how old Iron Heart von Breitstein would present this
+point of view to him, with fierce eloquence, temples throbbing like
+the ticking of a watch, eyes netted with bloodshot veins. But on the
+other hand he could picture himself standing calmly to face the storm,
+steadfast in his own indomitable will, happy with love to uphold him.
+
+But now, the will which had borne him through life in a triumphal
+march, had been powerless against that of this young girl. She would
+have none of him. A woman whose face was her fortune, whose place in
+life was hardly as high as the first step of a throne, had refused--an
+Emperor.
+
+Hardly could Leopold believe the thing that had happened to him. He
+had spoken of doubting that he had won her love; and he had doubted.
+But he had allowed himself to hope, because he had confidence in his
+Star, and because, perhaps, it had scarcely been known in the annals
+of history that an Emperor's suit should be repulsed.
+
+Besides, he had loved the girl so passionately, that it seemed she
+could not remain cold. And he hoped still that, when she had passed a
+long night in reflection, in thinking over the situation, perhaps
+taking counsel with that comparatively commonplace yet practical
+little lady, her mother, she might be ready to change her mind.
+
+For the first few moments after the stinging rebuff he had endured,
+Leopold felt that, if she did, it would be her turn to suffer, for he
+could never humble himself to implore for the second time. But, as he
+stood in the soft stillness of the night, gazing towards the lights of
+the house, thoughts of Virginia--her youth, her sweetness, her beauty
+dimmed with grief,--overwhelmed him. Could he have reached her, he
+would have fallen on his knees, and kissed her gown.
+
+By and by a vast tenderness breathed its calm over the thwarted
+passion in his breast, and plans to win her back came whispering in
+his ear. He would write a letter and send it to her room. But no;
+perhaps it would be wise to give her a longer interval for reflection
+and--it might be--regret. To-morrow he would see her and show all the
+depths of that great love which she had thought to throw away. She
+could not go on withstanding him forever; and now that he had burned
+his boats behind him, he would never think of turning back. He would
+persevere till she should yield.
+
+Meanwhile Virginia had hurried blindly toward the house, and it was
+instinct rather than intention that led her to the open window of the
+music room, by which she had come out.
+
+Tears burned her eyelids, but they did not fall until she stood once
+more in the room where she and Leopold had been happy together. There
+she had sat at the piano, and he had bent over her, love in his
+eyes--honest love, she had thought, her heart full of thanksgiving.
+How little she had guessed then the humiliation in store for her, and
+the end of all her hopes! How could she bear her pain, and how could
+she go on living out her life?
+
+She paused in the window niche, looking into the room through a mist
+of tears, and a sob choked her. "Cruel--cruel," she whispered. "What
+agony--what an insult!"
+
+Then, dashing away her tears, she pushed back the dark curtain, and
+would have passed on into the room, had not the quick gesture brought
+her arm into contact with the buttons and gold braid on a man's
+breast.
+
+Instantly she realized that some one was hiding there--some
+one dressed in a military coat; and her first impulse was for
+flight--anything to escape, unrecognized. But on second thoughts
+she changed her mind.
+
+Whoever it was had in all probability hidden himself for the purpose
+of spying, and was already aware that Miss Mowbray had rushed into the
+house weeping, after a tete-a-tete with the Emperor in the garden.
+Perhaps he had even caught a word or two of her sobbing ejaculation.
+No, she must not run away, and leave the outcome of this affair to
+chance. She must see with whom she had to deal, that she might know
+what was best to do.
+
+She had taken a step into the room, but quick as light she turned,
+pulled away the screen of curtain and faced Captain von Breitstein.
+
+It was a trying moment for him, and the girl's look stripped him of
+all his light audacity. She had come to the window by a different path
+from the one he had watched, therefore she had taken him unawares,
+before he had time to escape, as he had planned. He was caught fairly,
+and must save himself as best he could without preparation.
+
+If her reproach forestalled his excuse, he was lost. He must step into
+the breach at whatever risk. No time to weigh words; he must let loose
+the first that sprang to his lips.
+
+"I see what you think of me," he said. "I see you think I was watching
+you. I swear I wasn't, though I knew you were in the garden with--the
+Emperor. Wait--you must listen. You must hear my justification. I was
+sent to this room to fetch you. For your sake, how could I go back and
+say you had disappeared--together? I looked out into the garden and
+saw you--with him. I saw from your manner that--he had made you
+suffer. I was half mad with rage, guessing--guessing something which
+one word you let drop as you came in, told me had happened. He is my
+sovereign, but--he has insulted you. Let me be your knight, as in days
+of old. Let me defend you, for I love you. I waited here to tell you
+this, as you came, so that, if you would, we might announce an
+engagement--"
+
+If Virginia's eyes had been daggers, he would have fallen at her feet,
+pierced to the heart. For one long second she looked at him without
+speaking, her face eloquent. Then she went by him with the proud
+bearing of a queen.
+
+Egon was stricken dumb. Dully he watched her move across the room to a
+door which led into a corridor. He heard the whisper of her satin
+dress, and saw the changing lights and shadows on its creamy folds,
+under the crystal chandeliers; he saw the white reflection, like a
+spirit, mirrored deep under the polished surface of the floor.
+
+Never had she been more beautiful; but she was beautiful in his eyes
+no longer. He had hurt her pride; but she had stabbed his vanity; and
+to wound Egon von Breitstein's vanity was to strike at his life. He
+hated the girl, hated her so sharply that his nerves ached with the
+intensity of his hatred; and the only relief he could have would be
+through reprisal.
+
+He had not been able to deceive her. She knew that he had been spying,
+and it was fortunate for his future, he realized already, that she had
+broken with the Emperor. He must do all he could, and do it quickly,
+to prevent a reconciliation, lest she should work him injury.
+
+As for his hastily stammered proposal, it was a good thing that the
+girl had not taken him at his word, for the Chancellor had not given
+him permission to speak, and if she had accepted him, he might have
+had to wriggle out of his engagement. Still, he could not forgive her
+scorn of him.
+
+"Lorenz shall help me to pay her for this!" he said furiously to
+himself, too angry to mourn over lost hopes, lost opportunities. "He
+will know how to punish her. And between us she shall suffer."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+"THE EMPEROR WILL UNDERSTAND"
+
+
+It was for refuge that the Princess fled to her own room.
+
+A boudoir shared by the Grand Duchess adjoined it, and entering there,
+to her dismay the girl saw her mother lying on a sofa, attended by
+Ernestine, the French maid.
+
+Virginia's heart sank. She had supposed the Grand Duchess to be in the
+white drawing-room with the Baroness, and the other guests of the
+house. Now there was no hope that she might be left alone and
+unquestioned. And the girl had longed to be alone.
+
+"At last!" exclaimed a faint voice from the sofa. "I thought you would
+never come."
+
+The Princess stared, half-dazed, unable yet to tear her mind from her
+private griefs. "Are you ill, Mother?" she stammered. "Had you sent
+for me?"
+
+"I came very near fainting in the drawing-room," the Grand Duchess
+answered. "Ernestine, you may leave us now."
+
+The French woman went out noiselessly.
+
+Still Virginia did not speak. Could it be that there had been another
+spy, beside Egon von Breitstein, and that her mother already knew how
+the castle of cards had fallen? Was it the news of defeat which had
+prostrated her?
+
+"Have you--did any one tell you?" the girl faltered.
+
+"I've had a telegram--a horrible telegram. Oh, Virginia, I am not
+young, as you are. I am too old to endure all this. I think you should
+not have subjected me to it."
+
+The Grand Duchess's voice was plaintive, and pried among the girl's
+sick nerves, like hot wire.
+
+"What do you mean, dear? I don't understand," she said, dully. "I'm so
+sorry you are ill. If it's my fault in any way, I--"
+
+Her mother pointed toward a writing table. "The telegram is there,"
+she murmured. "It is too distressing--too humiliating."
+
+Virginia picked up a crumpled telegraph form and began to read the
+message, which was dated London and written in English. "Some one
+making inquiries here about the Mowbrays. Beg to advise you to explain
+all at once, or leave Kronburg, to avoid almost certain complications.
+Lambert."
+
+Lady Lambert was the wife of the ex-Ambassador to the Court of Rhaetia
+from Great Britain.
+
+The Princess finished in silence.
+
+"Isn't it hideous?" asked the Grand Duchess. "To think that you and I
+should have deliberately placed ourselves in such a position! We are
+to run away, like detected adventuresses, unless--unless you are now
+ready to tell the Emperor all."
+
+"No," said Virginia, hopelessly.
+
+"What! Not yet? Oh, my dear, then you must bring matters to
+a crisis--instantly--to-night even. It's evident that some
+enemy--perhaps some jealous person--has been at work behind our
+backs. It is for you to turn the tables upon him, and there isn't
+an hour to waste. From the first, you meant to make some dramatic
+revelation. Now, the time has come."
+
+"Ah, I meant--I meant!" echoed Virginia, with a sob breaking the ice
+in her voice. "Nothing has turned out as I meant. You were right,
+dear; I was wrong. We ought never to have come to Rhaetia."
+
+The Grand Duchess grew paler than before. She had been vaguely
+distressed. Now, she was sharply alarmed. If Virginia admitted that
+this great adventure should never have been undertaken, then indeed
+the earth must be quaking under their feet.
+
+"Ought not--to have come?" she repeated, piteously. "What dreadful
+thing has happened?"
+
+The Princess stood with bent head. "It's hard to tell," she said,
+"harder, almost, than anything I ever had to do. But it must be done.
+Everything's at an end, dear."
+
+"What--you've told him, and he has refused to forgive?"
+
+"He knows nothing."
+
+"For Heaven's sake, don't keep me in suspense."
+
+Virginia's lips were dry. "He asked me to be his wife," she said. "Oh,
+wait--wait! Don't look happy. You don't understand, and I didn't, at
+first. He had to explain and--he put the thing as little offensively
+as he could. Oh, Mother, he thinks me only good enough to be his
+morganatic wife!"
+
+The storm had burst at last, and the Princess fell on her knees by the
+sofa where, burying her face in her mother's lap, she sobbed as if
+parting with her youth.
+
+There had always been mental and temperamental barriers between the
+Dresden china lady and her daughter; but they loved each other, and
+never had the girl been so dear to her mother as now. The Grand
+Duchess thought of the summer day when Virginia had knelt beside her,
+saying, "We are going to have an adventure, you and I."
+
+Alas, the adventure was over, and summer and hope were dead. Tears
+trembled in the mother's eyes. Poor little Virginia, so young, so
+inexperienced, and, in spite of her self-will and recklessness, so
+sweet and loving withal!
+
+"But, dear, but, you are making the worst of things," the Grand
+Duchess said soothingly, her hand on the girl's bright hair. "Why,
+instead of crying you ought to be smiling, I think. Leopold must love
+you desperately, or he would never have proposed marriage--even
+morganatic marriage. Just at first, the idea must have shocked
+you--knowing who you are. But remember, if you were Miss Mowbray, it
+would have been a triumph. Many women of high position have married
+Royalty morganatically, and every one has respected them. You seem to
+forget that the Emperor knows you only as Helen Mowbray."
+
+"He ought to have known that Helen Mowbray was not the girl to
+consent--no, not more easily than Virginia of Baumenburg-Drippe. He
+should have understood without telling, that to a girl with
+Anglo-Saxon blood in her veins such an offer would be like a blow over
+the heart."
+
+"How should he understand? He is Rhaetian. His point of view--"
+
+"His point of view to me is terrible. Oh, Mother, it's useless to
+argue. Everything is spoiled. Of course if he knew I was Princess
+Virginia, he would be sorry for what he had proposed, even if he
+thought I'd brought it on myself. But then, it would be too late.
+Don't you understand, I valued his love because it was given to _me_,
+not the Princess? If he said, 'Now I know you, I can offer my right
+hand instead of my left, to you as my wife,' that would not be the
+same thing at all. No, there's nothing left but to go home; and the
+Emperor of Rhaetia must be told that Virginia of Baumenburg-Drippe has
+decided not to marry. That will be our one revenge--but a pitiful one,
+since he'll never know that the Princess who refuses his right hand
+and the Helen Mowbray who wouldn't take his left, are one and the
+same. Oh Mother, I did love him so! Let us get out of this hateful
+house as soon as we can."
+
+The Grand Duchess knew her daughter, and abandoned hope. "Yes, if you
+will not forgive him; we must go at once, and save our dignity if we
+can," she said. "The telegram will give us our excuse. I told the
+Baroness I had received bad news, and she asked permission to knock at
+my door before going to bed, and inquire how I was feeling. She may
+come at any moment. We must say that the telegram recalls us
+immediately to England."
+
+"Listen!" whispered Virginia. "I think there's some one at the door
+now."
+
+Baroness von Lyndal stood aghast on hearing that she was to be
+deserted early in the morning by the bright, particular star of her
+house party--after the Emperor. She begged that Lady Mowbray would
+reconsider; that she would wire to England, instead of going, or at
+all events that she would wait for one day more, until Leopold's visit
+to Schloss Lyndalberg should be over.
+
+In her anxiety, she even failed in tact, when she found arguments
+useless. "But the Emperor?" she objected. "If you go off early in the
+morning, before he or any one comes down, what will he think, what
+will he say at being cheated out of his _au revoir_?"
+
+The Grand Duchess hesitated; but Virginia answered firmly "I said
+good-by to him to-night. The Emperor--will understand."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE MAGIC CITRON
+
+
+Breakfast at Schloss Lyndalberg was an informal meal, under the reign
+of Mechtilde. Those who were sociably inclined, appeared. Those who
+loved not their species until the day was older, ate in their rooms.
+
+Leopold had shown himself at the table each morning, however, and set
+the fashion. And the day after the parting in the garden, he was
+earlier even than usual. It was easy to be early, as he had not been
+to bed that night; but he had an extra incentive. He could scarcely
+wait to see how Helen Mowbray would meet him; whether she would still
+be cold, or whether sound advice from her mother would have made her
+kind.
+
+This was his last day at Lyndalberg. By his special request no program
+of entertainment had been arranged; and before coming down to
+breakfast Leopold had been turning over in his mind plan after plan
+for another chance of meeting the girl alone. He had even written a
+letter, but had torn it up, because he was unable to say on paper what
+was really in his heart.
+
+Breakfast passed, however, and when she did not appear, Leopold grew
+restless. He did not ask for her before the others; but when he and
+the Baroness had strolled out together on the terrace, where white
+peacocks spread their jeweled tails, the Emperor sought some
+opportunity of bringing in the name that filled his thoughts.
+
+"I see the red October lilies are opening," he said. "Miss Mowbray
+will be interested. She tells me there's nothing like them in
+England."
+
+"Ah, she has gone just too soon!" sighed the Baroness.
+
+The Emperor glanced quickly from the mass of crimson flowers, to his
+hostess's face. "Gone?" he repeated.
+
+"Yes," the Baroness answered. "They must have reached Kronburg before
+this. You know, they left their companion there. Perhaps your Majesty
+did not realize that they were leaving here quite so early?"
+
+He turned so white under the brown tan the mountains had given, that
+the Baroness was alarmed. She had taken Virginia's words as Virginia
+had meant her to take them, and therefore supposed that a formal
+farewell of some sort had been spoken. This impression did not prevent
+her from guessing that there must have been a misunderstanding, and
+she was tingling with a lively curiosity which she was obliged
+carefully to hide.
+
+The romance which had been enacted under her eyes she believed to be
+largely of her own making; and, not being a bad-hearted woman, she had
+grown fond of Virginia. She had even had pangs of conscience; and
+though she could not see the way for a happy ending to the pretty
+drama, it distressed her that the curtain should go down on sadness.
+
+"I did not know they were going at all," Leopold answered frankly,
+willing to sacrifice his pride for the sake of coming quickly at the
+truth.
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed the Baroness. "I am distressed! Miss Mowbray
+distinctly said, when I begged that they would wait, 'the Emperor will
+understand.'"
+
+"I do understand--now I know they have gone," he admitted. "But--Miss
+Mowbray thinks she has some cause of complaint against me, and she's
+mistaken. I can't let such a mistake go uncorrected. You say they must
+be at Kronburg before this. Are they staying on there?"
+
+"I'm afraid not, your Majesty. They leave Kronburg for England to-day
+by the Orient Express."
+
+"Do you happen to remember at what hour the train starts?"
+
+"I believe at twelve."
+
+Leopold pulled out his watch. It was twenty minutes past eleven. Forty
+times sixty seconds, and the girl would be gone.
+
+The blood rushed to his face. Barring accidents, he could catch her if
+he ordered his motor-car, and left at once. But to cut short his visit
+at Schloss Lyndalberg, would be virtually to take the world into his
+secret. Let him allege important state business at the capital, if he
+chose, gossip would still say that the girl had fled, that he had
+pursued her. The Baroness knew already; others would chatter as if
+they knew; that was inevitable--if he went.
+
+A month ago (when yielding to inclination meant humbling his pride as
+Emperor and man), such a question would have answered itself. Now, it
+answered itself also, the only difference being that the answer was
+exactly opposite to what it would have been a month earlier.
+
+"Baroness, forgive me," he said quickly. "I must go. I can't explain."
+
+"You need not try," she answered him, softly.
+
+"Thank you, a hundred times. Make everything as straight for me as you
+can. Say what you will. I give you _carte blanche_, for we're old
+friends, and I trust you."
+
+"It's for me to thank your Majesty. You want your motor-car?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I'll telephone. Your chauffeur will have it here in six minutes. And
+your aide-de-camp. Will you--"
+
+"I don't want him, thanks. I'd rather go alone."
+
+Seven minutes later the big white motor-car was at the door which was
+the private entrance to the Emperor's suite; and the Emperor was
+waiting for it, having forgotten all about the sable-lined coat which
+had been a present from the Czar. If it had been mid-winter, he would
+have forgotten, just the same; nor would he have known that it was
+cold.
+
+There was plenty of time now to carry out his plan, which was to
+catch the Orient Express at the Kronburg station, and present himself
+to the Mowbrays in the train, later. As to what would happen
+afterwards, it was beyond planning; but Leopold knew that the girl had
+loved him; and he hoped that he would have Lady Mowbray on his side.
+
+The only way of reaching Kronburg from Schloss Lyndalberg was by road;
+there was no railway connection between the two places. But the town
+and the castle were separated by a short eight miles, and until
+checked by traffic in the suburbs, the sixty horse-power car could
+cover a mile in less than two minutes.
+
+Unfortunately, however, police regulations were strict, and of this
+Leopold could not complain, as he had approved them himself. Once, he
+was stopped, and would certainly not have been allowed to proceed, had
+he not revealed himself as the Emperor, the owner of the one
+unnumbered car in Rhaetia. As it was, he had suffered a delay of five
+minutes; and just as he was congratulating himself on the goodness of
+his tires, which had made him no trouble for many weeks, a loud report
+as of a pistol shot gave warning of a puncture.
+
+But there was not a moment to waste on repairs, Leopold drove on, on
+the rims, only to acknowledge presently the truth of an old proverb,
+"the more haste the less speed."
+
+Delayed by a torn and flapping tire, the car arrived at the big
+Central Station of Kronburg only five minutes before twelve. Leopold
+dashed in, careless whether he were recognized or no, and was
+surprised at the absence of the crowd which usually throngs the
+platform before the departure of the most important train of the day.
+
+"Is the Orient Express late?" he asked of an inspector to whom he was
+but a man among other men.
+
+"No, sir. Just on time. Went out five minutes ago."
+
+"But it isn't due to start till twelve."
+
+"Summer time-table, sir. Autumn time-table takes effect to-day, the
+first of October. Orient Express departure changed to eleven-fifty."
+
+An unreasoning rage against fate boiled in the Emperor's breast. He
+ruled this country, yet everything in it seemed to conspire in a plot
+to wreck his dearest desires.
+
+For a few seconds he stood speechless, feeling as if he had been
+dashed against a blank wall, and there were no way of getting round
+it. Yet the seconds were but few, for Leopold was not a man of slow
+decisions.
+
+His first step was to inquire the name of the town at which the Orient
+Express stopped soonest. In three hours, he learnt, it would reach
+Felgarde, the last station on the Rhaetian side of the frontier.
+
+His first thought on hearing this was to engage a special, and follow;
+but even in these days there is much red tape entangled with railway
+regulations in Rhaetia. It soon appeared that it would be quicker to
+take the next train to Felgarde, which was due to leave in half an
+hour, and would arrive only an hour later than the Orient Express.
+
+Leopold's heart was chilled, but he shook off despondency and would
+not be discouraged. Telephoning to the hotel where the Mowbrays had
+been stopping, he learned that they had gone. Then he wrote out a
+telegram: "Miss Helen Mowbray, Traveling from Kronburg to Paris by
+Orient Express, Care of Station-master at Felgarde. I implore you
+leave the train at Felgarde and wait for me. Am following in all
+haste. Will arrive Felgarde one hour after you, and hope to find you
+at Leopoldhof." So far the wording was simple. He had signified his
+intention and expressed his wish, which would have been more than
+enough to assure the accomplishment of his purpose, had he been
+dealing with a subject. Unfortunately, however, Helen Mowbray was not
+a subject, and had exhibited no sign of subjection. It was therefore
+futile to prophesy whether or no she would choose to grant his
+request.
+
+Revolving the pros and cons he was forced to conclude that she
+probably would not grant it--unless he had some new argument to bring
+forward. Yet what had he to urge that he had not already urged twice
+over? What could he say at this eleventh hour which would not only
+induce her to await his coming at Felgarde, but justify him in making
+a last appeal when he came to explain it in person?
+
+As he stood pen in hand, suddenly he found himself recalling a fairy
+story which he had never tired of reading in his childhood. Under the
+disguise of fancy, it was a lesson against vacillation, and he had
+often said to himself as a boy, that when he grew up, he would not,
+like the Prince of the story, miss a gift of the gods through weak
+hesitation.
+
+The pretty legend in his mind had for a hero a young prince who went
+abroad to seek his fortune, and received from one of the Fates to
+whom he paid a visit, three magic citrons which he must cut open by
+the side of a certain fountain. He obeyed his instructions; but when
+from the first citron sprang an exquisite fairy maiden, demanding a
+drink of water, the young man lost his presence of mind. While he sat
+staring, the lovely lady vanished; and with a second experiment it was
+the same. Only the third citron remained of the Fates' squandered
+gifts, and when the Prince cut it in half, the maiden who appeared was
+so much more beautiful than her sisters, that in adoring wonder he
+almost lost her as he had lost the others.
+
+"My knife is on the rind of the last citron now," Leopold said to
+himself. "Let me not lose the one chance I have left."
+
+Last night he had believed that there would not be room in a man's
+heart for more love than his held for Helen Mowbray; but realizing to
+the full how great was the danger of losing her, he found that his
+love had grown beyond reckoning.
+
+He had thought it a sacrifice to suggest a morganatic marriage. Now, a
+voice seemed to say in his ear, "The price you offered was not enough.
+Is love worth all to you or not?" And he answered, "It is worth all.
+I will offer all, yet not count it a sacrifice. That is love, and
+nothing less is love."
+
+A white light broke before his eyes, like a meteor bursting, and the
+voice in his ear spoke words that sent a flame through his veins.
+
+"I will do it," he said. "Who is there among my people who will dare
+say 'no' to their Emperor's 'yes'? I will make a new law. I will be a
+law unto myself."
+
+His face, that had been pale, was flushed. He tore up the unfinished
+telegram, and wrote another, which he signed "Leo, the Chamois
+Hunter." Then, when he had handed in the message, and paid, there was
+but just time to buy his ticket, engage a whole first-class
+compartment, for himself, and dash into it, before his train was due
+to start.
+
+As it moved slowly out of the big station, Leopold's brain rang with
+the noble music of his great resolve. He could see nothing, think of
+nothing but that. His arms ached to clasp his love; his lips, cheated
+last night, already felt her kisses; for she would give them now, and
+she would give herself. He was treading the past of an Empire under
+foot, in the hope of a future with her; and every throb of the engine
+was taking him nearer to the threshold of that future.
+
+But such moments of supreme exaltation come rarely in a lifetime. The
+heart of man or woman could not beat on for long with such wild music
+for accompaniment; and so it was that, as the moments passed, the song
+of the Emperor's blood fell to a minor key. He thought passionately of
+Virginia, but he thought of his country as well, and tried to weigh
+the effect upon others of the thing that he was prepared to do. There
+was no one on earth whom Leopold of Rhaetia need fear, but there was
+one to whom he owed much, one whom it would be grievious to offend.
+
+In his father's day, one man--old even then--had built upon the
+foundations of a tragic past, a great and prosperous nation. This man
+had been to Leopold what his father had never been; and without the
+magic power of inspiring warm affection, had instilled respect and
+gratitude in the breast of an enthusiastic boy.
+
+"Poor old von Breitstein!" the Emperor sighed; "The country is his
+idol--the country with all the old traditions. He'll feel this break
+sorely. I'd spare him if I could; but I can't live my life for him--"
+
+He sighed again, and looked up frowning at a sudden sound which meant
+intrusion.
+
+Like a spirit called from the deep, there stood the Chancellor at the
+door between Leopold's compartment and the one adjoining.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE EMPEROR AT BAY
+
+
+Iron Heart was dressed in the long, double-breasted gray overcoat and
+the soft gray hat in which all snapshot photographs (no others had
+ever been taken) showed the Chancellor of Rhaetia.
+
+At sight of the Emperor off came the famous hat, baring the bald dome
+of the fine old head, fringed with hair of curiously mingled black and
+white.
+
+"Good day, your Majesty," he said, with no sign of surprise in his
+voice or face.
+
+The train rocked, going round a curve, and it was with difficulty that
+the Chancellor kept his footing; but he stood rigidly erect,
+supporting himself in the doorway, until the Emperor with more
+politeness than enthusiasm, invited him to enter and be seated.
+
+"I'm glad you're well enough to travel, Chancellor," said Leopold.
+"We had none too encouraging an account of you from Captain von
+Breitstein."
+
+"I travel because you travel, your Majesty," replied the old man. "It
+is kind of you to tolerate me here, and I appreciate it."
+
+Now, they sat facing each other; and the young man, fighting down a
+sense of guilt--familiar to him in boyish days, when about to be taken
+to task by the Chancellor--gazed fixedly at the hard, clever face on
+which the afternoon sun scored the detail of each wrinkle.
+
+"Indeed?" was the Emperor's only answer.
+
+"Your Majesty, I have served you and your father before you, well, I
+hope, faithfully, I know. I think you trust me."
+
+"No man more. But this sounds a portentous preface. Is it possible you
+imagine it necessary to 'lead up' to a subject, if I can please myself
+by doing you a favor?"
+
+"If I have seemed to lead up to what I wish to say, your Majesty, it
+is only for the sake of explanation. You are wondering, no doubt, how
+I knew you would travel to-day, and in this train; also why I have
+ventured to follow. Your intention I learned by accident." (The
+Chancellor did not explain by what diplomacy that "accident" had been
+brought about.) "Wishing much to talk over with you a pressing matter
+that should not be delayed, I took this liberty, and seized this
+opportunity.
+
+"Some men would, in my place, pretend that business of their own had
+brought them, and that the train had been chosen by chance. But your
+Majesty knows me as a blunt man, when I serve him not as diplomat, but
+as friend. I'm not one to work in the dark with those who trust me,
+and I want your Majesty to know the truth." (Which perhaps he did, but
+not the whole truth.)
+
+"You raise my curiosity," said Leopold.
+
+"Then have I your indulgence to speak frankly, not entirely as a
+humble subject to his Emperor, but as an old man to a young man?"
+
+"I'd have you speak as a friend," said Leopold. But a slight
+constraint hardened his voice, as he prepared himself for something
+disagreeable.
+
+"I've had a letter from the Crown Prince of Hungaria. It has come to
+his ears that there is a certain reason for your Majesty's delay in
+following up the first overtures for an alliance with his family.
+Malicious tongues have whispered that your Majesty's attentions are
+otherwise engaged; and the young Adalbert has addressed me in a
+friendly way begging that the rumor may be contradicted or confirmed."
+
+"I'm not sure that negotiations had gone far enough to give him the
+right to be inquisitive," returned Leopold, flushing.
+
+The Chancellor spread out his old, veined hands in a gesture of
+appeal. "I fear," he said, "that in my anxiety for your Majesty's
+welfare and the good of Rhaetia, I may have exceeded my instructions.
+My one excuse is, that I believed your mind to be definitely made up.
+I still believe it to be so. I would listen to no one who should try
+to persuade me of the contrary, and I will write Adalbert--"
+
+"You must get yourself and me out of the scrape as best you can, since
+you admit you got us into it," broke in the Emperor, with an uneasy
+laugh. "If Princess Virginia of Baumenburg-Drippe is as charming as
+she is said to be, her difficulty will be in choosing a husband, not
+in getting one. For once, my dear Chancellor, gossip has told the
+truth; and I wouldn't pay the Princess so poor a compliment as to ask
+for her hand, when I've no heart left to give her in exchange for it.
+There's some one else--"
+
+"It is of that some one else I would venture to speak, your Majesty.
+Gossip has named her. May I?"
+
+"I'll save you the trouble. For I'm not ashamed that the common fate
+has overtaken me--common, because every man loves once before he dies;
+and yet uncommon, because no man ever loved a woman so worthy.
+Chancellor, there's no woman in the world like Miss Helen Mowbray, the
+lady to whom I owe my life."
+
+"It's natural you should be grateful, your Majesty, but--"
+
+"It's natural I should be in love."
+
+"Natural that a young man inexperienced in affairs of the heart,
+should mistake warm gratitude for love. Impossible that the mistake
+should be allowed to continue."
+
+Leopold's eyes grew dark. "In such a connection," he said, "it would
+be better not to mention the word 'mistake.' I'm glad you are here;
+for now you can learn from me my intentions toward that lady--"
+
+"Intentions, did you say, your Majesty? I fear I grow hard of
+hearing."
+
+"At least you will never grow slow of understanding. I did speak of my
+intentions toward Miss Mowbray."
+
+"You would give the lady some magnificent estate, some splendid
+acknowledgment--"
+
+"Whether splendid or not would be a matter of opinion," laughed the
+Emperor. "I shall offer her a present of myself."
+
+The old man had been sitting with his chin sunk into his short neck,
+peering out from under his brows in a way he had; but he lifted his
+head suddenly, with a look in his eyes like that of an animal who
+scents danger from an unexpected quarter.
+
+"Your Majesty!" he exclaimed. "You are your father's son, you are
+Rhaetian, and your standard of honor--"
+
+"I hope to marry Miss Mowbray," Leopold cut him short.
+
+The Chancellor's jaw dropped, and he grew pale. "I had dreamed of
+nothing as bad as this," he blurted out, with no thought or wish to
+sugar the truth. "I feared a young man's rashness. I dreaded scandal.
+But, forgive me, your Majesty, for you a morganatic marriage would be
+madness--"
+
+"A morganatic marriage I did think of at first. But on second thoughts
+I saw it would be ungrateful."
+
+"Ah yes, to the country which expects so much of you."
+
+"No, to the woman who has the right to all or nothing. I will make her
+Empress of Rhaetia."
+
+With a cry the Chancellor sprang up. His eyes glared like the eyes of
+a bull who receives the death stroke. His working lips, and the hollow
+sound in his throat alarmed the Emperor.
+
+"No, your Majesty. No!" he panted.
+
+"But I say yes," Leopold answered, "and let no man give me nay. I've
+thought it all out. I will make her a Countess first. Then, she shall
+be made my Empress."
+
+"Your Majesty, it is not possible."
+
+"Take care, Chancellor."
+
+"She has been deceiving you. She has neither the birth, the position,
+nor the name she claims to have, and I can prove it."
+
+"You are mad, von Breitstein," the Emperor flung at him. "That can be
+your only excuse for such words."
+
+"I am not mad, but I am old and wise, your Majesty. To-day you have
+made me feel that I am very old. Punish me as you will for my
+frankness. My work for you and yours is nearly done. Cheerfully will I
+submit to my dismissal if only this last effort in your service may
+save the ship of state from wreck. I would not make an accusation
+which I could not prove. And I can prove that the two English ladies
+who have been staying at Schloss Lyndalberg are not the persons they
+pretend to be."
+
+"Who has been lying to you?" cried Leopold, who held between clenched
+hands the temper he vowed not to lose with this old man.
+
+"To me, no one. To your Majesty, to society in Kronburg, two
+adventuresses have lied."
+
+The Emperor caught his breath. "If you were a young man I would kill
+you for that," he said.
+
+"I know you would. As it is, my life is yours. But before you take it,
+for God's sake, for your father's sake, hear me out."
+
+Leopold did not speak for a moment, but stared at the vanishing
+landscape, which he saw through a red haze. "Very well," he said at
+last, "I will hear you, because I fear nothing you can say."
+
+"When I heard of your Majesty's--admiration for a certain lady," the
+Chancellor began quickly, lest the Emperor should change his mind, "I
+looked for her name and her mother's in Burke's Peerage. There I found
+Lady Mowbray, widow of a dead Baron of that ilk; mother of a son,
+still a child, and of one daughter, a young woman with many names and
+twenty-eight years.
+
+"This surprised me, as the Miss Mowbray I had seen at the birthday
+ball looked no more than eighteen, and--I was told--confessed to
+twenty. The Mowbrays, I learned by a little further research in
+Burke, were distantly connected by marriage with the family of
+Baumenburg-Drippe. This seemed an odd coincidence, in the circumstances.
+But acting as duty bade me act, I wired to two persons: Baron von Sark,
+your Majesty's ambassador to Great Britain; and the Crown Prince of
+Hungaria, the brother of Princess Virginia."
+
+"What did you telegraph?" asked the Emperor, icily.
+
+"Nothing compromising to your Majesty, you may well believe. I
+inquired of Adalbert if he had English relations, a Lady Mowbray and
+daughter Helen, traveling in Rhaetia; and I begged that, if so, he
+would describe their appearance by telegram. To von Sark I said that
+particulars by wire concerning the widow of Lord Mowbray and daughter
+Helen, would put me under personal obligation. Both these messages I
+sent off night before last. Yesterday I received Adalbert's answer;
+this morning, von Sark's. They are here," and the Chancellor tapped
+the breast of his gray coat. "Will your Majesty read them?"
+
+"If you wish," replied Leopold at his haughtiest and coldest.
+
+The old man unbuttoned his coat and produced a coroneted pocket-book,
+a souvenir of friendship on his last birthday from the Emperor.
+Leopold saw it, and remembered, as the Chancellor hoped he would.
+
+"Here are the telegrams, your Majesty," he said. "The first one is
+from the Crown Prince of Hungaria."
+
+"Have no idea where Lady Mowbray and daughter are traveling; may be
+Rhaetia or North Pole," Adalbert had written with characteristic
+flippancy. "Have seen neither for eight years, and scarcely know them.
+But Lady M. tall brown old party with nose like hobbyhorse. Helen
+dark, nose like mother's, wears glasses."
+
+With no betrayal of feeling, Leopold laid the telegram on the red
+plush seat, and unfolded the other.
+
+"Pardon delay," the Rhaetian ambassador's message began. "Have been
+making inquiries. Lady Mowbray has been widow for ten years. Not rich.
+During son's minority has let her town and country houses, lives much
+abroad. Very high church, intellectual, at present in Calcutta, where
+her daughter Helen, twenty-eight, not pretty, is lately engaged to
+marry middle-aged Judge of some distinction."
+
+"So!" And the Emperor threw aside the second bit of paper. "It is on
+such slight grounds as these that a man of the world can label two
+ladies 'adventuresses'!"
+
+The Chancellor was bitterly disappointed. He had counted on the
+impression which these telegrams must make, and unless Leopold were
+acting, it was now certain that love had driven him out of his senses.
+
+But if the Emperor were mad, he must be treated accordingly, and the
+old statesman condescended to "bluff."
+
+"There is still more to tell," he said, "if your Majesty has not heard
+enough. But I think when you have reflected you will not wish for
+more. It is clear that the women calling themselves Mowbrays have had
+the audacity to present themselves here under false colors. They have
+either deceived Lady Lambert, who introduced them to Rhaetian society,
+or--still more likely--they have cleverly forged their letters of
+introduction."
+
+"Why didn't you telegraph to Lady Lambert, while your hand was in?"
+sneered Leopold.
+
+"I did, your Majesty, or rather, not knowing her present address I
+wired a friend of mine, an acquaintance of hers, begging him to make
+inquiries, without using my name. But I have not yet received an
+answer to that telegram."
+
+"Until you do, I should think that even a cynic like yourself might
+give two defenseless, inoffensive ladies the benefit of the doubt."
+
+"Inoffensive?" echoed von Breitstein. "Inoffensive, when they came to
+this country to ensnare your Majesty through the girl's beauty? But,
+great Heaven, it is true that I am growing old! I have forgotten to
+ask your Majesty whether you have gone so far as to mention the word
+marriage to Miss Mowbray?"
+
+"I'll answer that question by another. Do you really believe that
+Miss Mowbray came to Rhaetia to 'entrap' me?"
+
+"I do. Though I scarcely think that even her ambition flew as high as
+you are encouraging it to soar."
+
+"In case you're right she would have been overjoyed with an offer of
+morganatic marriage."
+
+"Overjoyed is a poor word. Overwhelmed might be nearer."
+
+"Yet I tell you she refused me last night, and is leaving Rhaetia
+to-day rather than listen to further entreaties."
+
+Leopold bent forward to launch this thunderbolt, his brown hands on
+his knees, his eyes eager. The memories, half bitter, half sweet,
+called up by his own words, caused Virginia to appear more beautiful,
+more desirable even than before.
+
+He was delighted with the expression of the Chancellor's face. "Now,
+what arguments have you left?" he broke out in the brief silence.
+
+"All I had before--and many new ones. For what your Majesty has said
+shows the lady more ambitious, more astute, therefore more dangerous
+than I had guessed. She staked everything on the power of her charms.
+And she might have won, had you not an old servant who wouldn't be
+fooled by the witcheries of a fair Helen."
+
+"She has won," said Leopold. Then, quickly, "God forgive me for
+chiming in with your bitter humor, as if she'd played a game. By
+simply being herself, she has won me--such as I am. She's proved that
+if she cares at all, it's for the man, and not the Emperor, since she
+called the offer you think so magnificent, an insult. Yes, Chancellor,
+that was the word she used; and it was almost the last she said to me:
+which is the reason I'm traveling to-day. And none of your boasted
+'proofs' can hold me back."
+
+"By Heaven, your Majesty must look upon yourself from the point of
+view you credit to the girl. You forget the Emperor in the man."
+
+"The two need not be separated."
+
+"Love indeed makes men blind, and spares not the eyes of Emperors."
+
+"I've pledged myself to bear with you, Chancellor."
+
+"And I know you'll keep your word. I must speak, for Rhaetia, and your
+better self. You are following this--lady to give her your Empire for
+a toy."
+
+"She must first accept the Emperor as her husband."
+
+"A lady who has so poor a name of her own that she steals one which
+doesn't belong to her. The nation won't bear it."
+
+"You speak for yourself, not for Rhaetia," said Leopold. "Though I'm
+not so old as you by half your years, I believe I can judge my people
+better than you do. The law which bids an Emperor of Rhaetia match
+with Royalty is an unwritten law, a law solely of customs, handed down
+through the generations. I'll not spoil my life by submitting to its
+yoke, since by breaking it the nation gains, as I do. I could go to
+the world's end and not find a woman as worthy to be my wife and
+Empress of Rhaetia as Helen Mowbray."
+
+"You have never seen Princess Virginia."
+
+"I've no wish to see her. There's but one woman for me, and I swear to
+you, if I lose her, I'll go to my grave unmarried. Let the crown fall
+to my uncle's son. I'll not perjure myself even for Rhaetia."
+
+The Chancellor bowed his head and held up his hands, for by that
+gesture alone could he express his despair.
+
+"If my people love me, they'll love my wife, and rejoice in my
+happiness," Leopold went on, sharply. "If they complain, why, we
+shall see who's master; whether or not the Emperor of Rhaetia is a
+mere figurehead. In some countries Royalty is but an ornamental
+survival of a picturesque past, a King or Queen is a mere puppet which
+the nation loads with luxury to do itself honor. That's not true of
+Rhaetia, though, as I'm ready to prove, if prove it I must. But I
+believe I shall be spared the trouble. We Rhaetians love romance; you
+are perhaps the one exception. While as for the story you've told me,
+I would not give that for it!" And the Emperor snapped his fingers.
+
+"You still believe the ladies have a right to the name of Mowbray?"
+
+"I believe that they are of stainless reputation, and that any seeming
+mystery can be explained. Miss Mowbray is herself. That's enough for
+me. Perhaps, Chancellor, there are two Lady Mowbrays."
+
+"Only one is mentioned in Burke."
+
+"Burke isn't gospel."
+
+"Pardon me. It's the gospel of the British peerage. It can no more be
+guilty of error than Euclid."
+
+"Nor can Miss Mowbray be guilty of wrong. I should still stake my life
+on that, even had your conclusions not been lame ones."
+
+The old man accepted this rebuff in silence. But it was not the
+silence of absolute hopelessness. It was only such a pause as a
+prize-fighter makes between rounds.
+
+"Your Majesty will not be in too great haste, at all events, I trust,"
+he said at last. "At least a little reflection, a little patience, to
+cool the blood. I have not laid down all my cards yet."
+
+"It's often bad policy not to lead trumps," replied Leopold.
+
+"Often, but not always. Time, and the end of the play will show. Is
+your Majesty's indulgence for the old man quite exhausted?"
+
+"Not quite, though rather strained, I confess." Leopold tempered his
+words with a faint smile.
+
+"Then I have one more important question to ask, venturing to remind
+you first that I have acted solely in your interest. If such a step as
+you contemplate should be my death blow, it is because of my love for
+you, and Rhaetia. Tell me, your Majesty, this one thing. If it were
+proved to you that the lady you know as Miss Mowbray, was, not only
+not the person she pretends to be, but in all other respects unworthy
+of your love--what would you do?"
+
+"You speak of impossibilities."
+
+"But if they were not impossibilities?"
+
+"In such a case I should do as other men do--spend the rest of life in
+trying to forget a lost ideal."
+
+"I thank your Majesty. That is all I ask. I suppose you will continue
+your journey?"
+
+"Yes, as far as Felgarde, where I hope to find Lady Mowbray and her
+daughter."
+
+"Then, your Majesty, when I've expressed my gratitude for your
+forebearance--even though I've failed to be convincing--I'll trouble
+you no longer."
+
+The Chancellor rose, painfully, with a reminiscence of gout, and
+Leopold stared at him in surprise. "What do you mean?" he asked.
+
+"Only that, as I can do no further good here, with your permission, I
+will get out at the station we are coming into, and go back home
+again."
+
+The Emperor realized, what he had not noticed until this moment, that
+the train was slackening speed as it approached the suburbs of a town.
+His conversation with the Chancellor had lasted for an hour, and he
+was far from regretting the prospect of being left in peace. More than
+once he had come perilously near to losing his temper, forgetting his
+gratitude and the old man's years. How much longer he could have held
+out under a continued strain of provocation, he did not know; so he
+spoke no word of dissuasion when Count von Breitstein picked up his
+soft hat and buttoned the gray coat for departure.
+
+"I've passed pleasanter hours in your society, I admit," said Leopold,
+when the train stopped. "But I can thank you for your motives, if not
+your maxims; and here's my hand."
+
+"It would be most kind of your Majesty to telephone me from Felgarde,"
+the Chancellor exclaimed, as if on a sudden thought, while they shook
+hands, "merely to say whether you remain there; or whether you go
+further; or whether you return at once. I am too fatigued to travel
+back immediately to Schloss Breitstein, and shall rest for some hours
+at least, in my house at Kronburg, so a call will find me there."
+
+"I will do as you ask," said the Emperor. Again he pressed the
+Chancellor's hand, and it was very cold.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THROUGH THE TELEPHONE
+
+
+When Leopold arrived at Felgarde he went immediately to the hotel
+which he had designated as a place of meeting. But no ladies answering
+to the description he gave had been seen there. Either Miss Mowbray
+had failed to receive his message, or, having received, had chosen to
+ignore it.
+
+The doubt, harrowing while it lasted, was solved on returning to the
+railway station, though certainty proved scarcely less tantalizing
+than uncertainty had been.
+
+The telegram was still in the hands of the station-master, to whose
+care it had been addressed. This diligent person professed to have
+sent a man through the Orient Express, from end to end, calling for
+Miss Helen Mowbray, but calling in vain. He had no theory more
+plausible to offer than that the lady had not started from Kronburg;
+or else that she had left the train at Felgarde before her name had
+been cried. But certainly she would not have had time to go far, if
+she were a through passenger, for the Orient Express stopped but ten
+minutes at Felgarde.
+
+It was evident throughout the short conversation that the excellent
+official was on pins and needles. Struck by the Emperor's features,
+which he had so often seen in painting and photograph, it still seemed
+impossible that the greatest man in Rhaetia could be traveling thus
+about the country, in ordinary morning dress, and unattended. Sure at
+one instant that he must be talking with the Emperor, sure the next
+that he had been deceived by a likeness, the poor fellow struggled
+against his confusion in a way that would have amused Leopold, in a
+different mood.
+
+With a manner that essayed the difficult mean between reverence due to
+Royalty, and common, every-day politeness, good enough for an ordinary
+gentleman, the station-master volunteered to ascertain whether the
+ladies described had gone out and given up their tickets. A few
+minutes of suspense dragged on; then came the news that no such
+persons had passed.
+
+Here was a stumbling-block. Since Helen Mowbray and her mother had
+apparently not traveled by the Orient Express, where had they gone on
+leaving the hotel at Kronburg? Had they after all misled Baroness von
+Lyndal as to their intentions, for the purpose of blinding the
+Emperor; or had they simply changed their minds at the last minute, as
+women may? Could it be possible that they had changed them so
+completely as to return to Schloss Lyndalberg? Or had they chosen to
+vanish mysteriously through some back door out of Rhaetia, leaving no
+trace which even a lover could find?
+
+Leopold could not help recalling the Chancellor's "revelations," but
+dismissed them as soon as they had crept into his brain. No matter
+where the clue to the tangle might lie, he told himself that it was
+not in any act of which Helen Mowbray need be ashamed.
+
+He could think of nothing more to do but to go dismally back to
+Kronburg, and await developments--or rather, to stir them up by every
+means in his power. This was the course he finally chose; and, just as
+he was about to act upon his decision, he remembered his carelessly
+given promise to Count von Breitstein.
+
+There was a telephone in the railway station at Felgarde, and Leopold
+himself called up the Chancellor at Kronburg.
+
+"My friends are not here. I'm starting for Kronburg as soon as
+possible, either by the next train, or by special," he announced,
+after a far-away squeak had signified Count von Breitstein's presence
+at the other end. "I don't see why you wish to know, but I would not
+break my promise. That's all; good-by--Eh?--What was that you said?"
+
+"I have a--curious--piece of--news for you," came over the wire in the
+Chancellor's voice. "It's--about the--ladies."
+
+"What is it?" asked Leopold.
+
+"I hinted that I had more information which I could not give you then.
+But I am in a different position now. You did not find your friends in
+the Orient Express."
+
+"No," said the Emperor.
+
+"They gave out that they were leaving Rhaetia. But they haven't
+crossed the frontier."
+
+"Thanks. That's exactly what I wanted to know."
+
+"You remember a certain person whose name can't be mentioned over the
+telephone, buying a hunting lodge near the village of Inseleden, in
+the Buchenwald, last year?"
+
+"Yes. I remember very well. But what has that to do with my friends?"
+
+"The younger lady has gone there without her mother, who remains in
+Kronburg, with the companion. It seems that the present owner of the
+hunting lodge has been acquainted with them for some time, though he
+was ignorant of their masquerade. You see, he knows them only under
+their real name. The young lady is a singer in comic operas, a Miss
+Jenny Brett, whose _dossier_ can be given you on demand. The owner of
+the hunting lodge arrived at his place this morning, motored into
+Kronburg, where the young lady had waited, evidently informed of his
+coming. She invited him to pay her a visit at her hotel; he accepted,
+and returned the invitation, which she accepted."
+
+"You are misinformed. The lady was never an opera singer. And I'm
+certain she would neither receive the person you mention, nor go to
+visit him."
+
+"Will you drive out to the lodge to-night, when you reach Kronburg,
+and honor the gentleman with an unexpected call?"
+
+"I will, d--n you, but not for the reason you think," cried the
+Emperor. It was the first time in his life that he had ever used
+strong language to the Chancellor.
+
+He dropped the receiver, flung down a gold coin with his own head upon
+it (at the moment he could have wished that he had no other) and
+waving away an offer of change, rushed out of the office.
+
+Under his breath he swore again, the strongest oaths which the rich
+language of his fatherland provided, anathematizing not the beloved
+woman, maligned, but the man who maligned her.
+
+There would be death in the thought that she could be false to
+herself, and her confession of love for him; but then, it was
+unthinkable. Let the whole world reek with foulness; his love must
+still shine above it, white and remote as the young moon.
+
+This old man--whose life would scarce have been safe if, in his
+Emperor's present mood, the two had been together--this old man had a
+grudge against the one perfect girl on earth. There was no black rag
+of scandal he would not stoop to pick out of the mud and fly as a
+flag of battle, soothing his conscience--if he had one--by saying it
+was for "Rhaetia's good."
+
+Telling himself that these things were truths, Leopold hurried away to
+inquire for the next train back to Kronburg. There would not be
+another for three hours, he found, and as nothing could have induced
+him to wait three hours, or even two, he ordered a special. There was
+a raging tiger in his breast, which would not cease to tear him until
+he had seen Helen Mowbray, laid his Empire at her feet, received her
+answer, and through it, punished the Chancellor.
+
+The special, he was told, could be ready in less than an hour. The
+journey to Kronburg would occupy nearly three more, and it would be
+close upon nine before he could start with Count von Breitstein, for
+the hunting lodge which he had promised to visit. But the Chancellor
+would doubtless have his electric carriage ready for the desired
+expedition, and they could reach their destination in twenty minutes.
+This was not too long a time to give up to proving the old man wrong;
+for to do this, not to find Helen Mowbray, was Leopold's motive in
+consenting. She would not be there, and the Emperor was going because
+she would not. He wanted to witness von Breitstein's confusion, for
+humiliation was the bitterest punishment which could possibly be
+inflicted on the proud and opinionated old man.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+TRUTH ACCORDING TO THE CHANCELLOR
+
+
+"Tell the truth--when desirable; spice with prevarication--when
+necessary; and never part with the whole truth at one time, since
+waste is sinful," was one of the maxims by which the Chancellor guided
+his own actions, though he did not give it away for the benefit of
+others; and he had made the most of that prudent policy to-day.
+
+He had told his Emperor no lies, even through the telephone, where
+forgetfulness may be pardonable; but he had arranged his truths as
+skilfully as he arranged his pawns on a chess-board.
+
+It was said by some who pretended to know, that Count von Breitstein
+had had a Jesuit for a tutor; but be this as it might, it was certain
+that, when he had a goal to reach, he did not pick his footsteps by
+the way. A flower here or there was apt to be trodden down, a small
+life broken, a reputation stained; but what of that when Rhaetia's
+standard was to be planted upon the mountain top?
+
+Supposing he had said to the Emperor, after his promise of plain
+speaking: "Your Majesty's journey to-day is a wild goose chase. I
+happen to know that those you seek are still at their hotel in
+Kronburg. When I heard from my brother Egon that they were leaving
+Schloss Lyndalberg suddenly and secretly, I went immediately to
+Kronburg, and called upon the ladies. My intention was to frighten
+them away, by telling them that the fraud was found out, and they had
+better disappear decently of their own accord, unless they wished to
+be assisted over the frontier. They actually dared refuse to see me,
+alleging as an excuse the sudden illness of their companion, which had
+prevented their leaving Kronburg as they intended. While I was
+awaiting this answer, I learned that some person was telegraphing from
+the railway station to the hotel manager, inquiring if the Mowbrays
+had gone. I guessed this person to be your Majesty, and ventured to
+use my influence strongly with the manager, so successfully that I was
+permitted to dictate the reply, and obtain his promise that the
+matter should be strictly confidential. I judged that your Majesty had
+meant to take the Orient Express, but had missed it; and as you
+telephoned from the station I had no doubt that you intended to
+follow, either by the next train or by a special. Soon, I learned that
+no special had been ordered by any one. I ascertained the time of the
+next train, and sought your Majesty in it. Had my eloquence then
+prevailed with you, I should have urged your return with me, and thus
+you would have been spared the useless journey to Felgarde. As you
+remained obstinately faithful, however, I considered myself fortunate
+to have you out of the way, so that I could hurry back, and,
+unhampered by your suspicions, set about learning still more facts to
+Miss Mowbray's discredit, or inventing a few if those which
+undoubtedly existed could not be unearthed in time."
+
+Supposing that Count von Breitstein's boasted frankness had led him to
+make these statements, it is probable that Rhaetia would not long have
+rejoiced in a Chancellor so wise and so self-sacrificing.
+
+It was well enough for the old man to declare his willingness to
+retire, if his master desired it; but he had counted (as people who
+risk all for great ends do count) on not being taken at his word. He
+loved power, because he had always had it, and without power life
+would not be worth the living; but it was honestly for the country's
+sake, and for Leopold's sake, rather than his own, that he desired
+to hold and keep his high position. Without his strong hand to seize
+the helm, should Leopold's fail for some careless instant, he
+conscientiously believed that the ship of state would be lost.
+
+He had done his best to disillusion a young man tricked into love for
+an adventuress. Now, neither as Chancellor nor friend could he make
+further open protest, unless favored by fate with some striking new
+development. There were, nevertheless, other ways of working; and he
+had but taken the first step toward interference. He meant, since
+worst had come to worst, to go on relentlessly; and he would hardly
+have considered it criminal to destroy a woman of the type to which he
+assigned Helen Mowbray, provided no means less stringent sufficed to
+snatch her from the throne of Rhaetia.
+
+There were many plans seething in the Chancellor's head, and Egon's
+help might be necessary. He might even have to go so far as to bribe
+Egon to kidnap the girl and sacrifice himself by marrying her out of
+hand, before she had a chance to learn that the Emperor was ready to
+meet her demands. Egon had been attentive to Miss Mowbray; it might
+well be believed even by the Emperor, that the young man had been
+madly enough in love to act upon his own initiative, uninfluenced by
+his brother.
+
+The Chancellor's first act on parting with Leopold was to telegraph
+Captain von Breitstein to meet the train by which he would return to
+Kronburg; therefore on arriving at the station he was not surprised to
+see Egon's handsome face prominent among others less attractive, on
+the crowded platform.
+
+"Well?" questioned the young man as the old man descended.
+
+"I'm sorry to say it is very far from well. But between us, we shall,
+I hope, improve matters. You have kept yourself _au courant_ with
+everything that has happened in the camp of the enemy?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Is anything stirring?"
+
+"Say 'any one,' and I can answer you more easily. Who do you think has
+arrived at the hotel?"
+
+"The devil, probably, to complicate matters."
+
+"I've heard him called so; but a good-looking devil, and devilishly
+pleasant. I met him in his motor, in which he'd driven into town from
+his new toy, the hunting lodge in--"
+
+"What! You mean the Prince--"
+
+"Of Darkness, you've just named him." Egon gave a laugh at his own
+repartee, but the Chancellor heard neither. His hard face brightened.
+"That's well," said he grimly. "Here we have just the young man to see
+us through this bad pass, if he's as good looking as ever, and in his
+usual mood for mischief. If we can interest him in this affair, he may
+save me a great deal of trouble, and you a mesalliance."
+
+"But your wedding present to me--" began Egon, blankly.
+
+"Don't distress yourself. Do what you can to assist me, and whatever
+the end, you shall be my heir, I promise you. Is the Prince at the
+hotel now?"
+
+"Yes. He had been to call on you at your town house, he stopped his
+automobile to tell me; and hearing from me that you would be back this
+evening, he decided to stay all night at the hotel, so that he could
+have a chat with you after your return, no matter at what hour it
+might be. I believe he has left a note at your house."
+
+"I will go to him, and we can then discuss its contents together,"
+said Count von Breitstein. And the chauffeur who drove his electric
+carriage was told to go to the Hohenlangenwald Hotel.
+
+The Prince who would, the Chancellor hoped, become the _Deus ex
+machina_, was engaged in selecting the wines for his dinner, when
+Count von Breitstein's card was sent in. He was pleased to say that he
+would receive his visitor, and (Egon having been sent about his
+business) the Chancellor was shown into the purple drawing-room of the
+suite reserved for Royalty.
+
+As he entered, a young man jumped up from an easy chair, scattering
+sheaves of illustrated papers, and held out both his hands, with a
+"Welcome, my dear old friend!"
+
+It would have been vain to scour the world in quest of a handsomer
+young man than this one. Even Egon von Breitstein would have seemed a
+more good-looking puppet beside him, and the Chancellor rejoiced in
+the physical perfection of a Prince who might prove a dangerous rival
+for an absent Emperor.
+
+"This is the best of good fortune!" exclaimed Count von Breitstein.
+"Egon told me you were here, and without waiting to get the note he
+said you had left for me, I came to you, straight from the railway
+station."
+
+"Splendid! And now you must dine with me. It was that I asked of you
+in my note. Dinner early; a serious talk; and an antidote for
+solemnity in a visit to the Leopoldhalle to see Mademoiselle Felice
+from the _Folies Bergere_ do her famous Fire and Fountain dance. A
+box; curtains half drawn; no one need know that the Chancellor helps
+his young friend amuse himself."
+
+"I thank your Royal Highness for the honor you suggest, and nothing
+could give me greater pleasure, if I had not a suggestion to venture
+in place of yours, which I believe may suit you better. I think I know
+of what you wish to talk with me, and I desire the same, while the
+business I have most at heart--"
+
+"Ah, your business is my business, then?"
+
+"I hope you may so consider it. In any case it is business which must
+be carried through now or never, and is of life and death importance
+to those whom it concerns. How it's to be done, or whether done at
+all, may depend on you, if you consent to interest yourself; and it
+could not be in more competent hands. If I'd been given my choice of
+an assistant, out of the whole world, I should have chosen your Royal
+Highness."
+
+"This sounds like an adventure."
+
+"It may be an adventure, and at the same time an act of justice."
+
+"Good. Although it was not in search of an adventure that I came to
+you, any more than it was the hope of game which brought me on a
+sudden impulse to my little hunting lodge, still, I trust I have
+always the instinct of a sportsman."
+
+"I am sure of that; and I have the less hesitation in enlisting your
+good-will, because it happens that your bird and mine can be killed
+with one shot."
+
+"Chancellor, you excite my curiosity."
+
+The old man smiled genially; but under the bristling brows glowed a
+flame as of the last embers in a dying fire. "Up-stairs," said he, "is
+a pretty woman; a beauty. She claims the name of Helen Mowbray, though
+her right to it is more than disputable. Her love affairs threaten a
+public scandal."
+
+"Ah, you are not the first one who has spoken of this pretty lady
+since I crossed the frontier this morning," exclaimed the young man,
+flushing. He paused and bit his lip, before going on, as if he wished
+to think, or regain self-control. But at last he laughed, not
+altogether lightly. "So, the lady most talked about for the moment in
+all Rhaetia, is under the same roof with me."
+
+"Fortunately, she is close at hand," said the Chancellor. "To you,
+more than to any other, I can open my heart in speaking of our great
+peril. This girl has drawn the Emperor into a fit of moon-madness. It
+is no more serious than that, and were she out of the way, he would
+wake as from a dream. But this is the moment of the crisis. He must be
+saved now, or he is lost forever, and all our hopes with him. Blessed
+would be the man who brought my poor master to his senses. I have
+tried and failed. But you could do it."
+
+"I?"
+
+"The sword of justice is ready for your hand."
+
+"That sentence has a solemn ring. I don't see what you want me to do.
+But--what sort of woman is this who has bewitched your grave Leopold?"
+
+"Beautiful, and clever, as women are clever; but not clever enough to
+fight her battle out against you and me."
+
+The Prince laughed again. "It isn't my _metier_ to fight with women. I
+prefer to make love to them."
+
+"Ah, you have said it! That is what I beg your Royal Highness to do."
+
+"How am I to get at her, when Leopold stands guard--"
+
+"He will not be on guard for some hours."
+
+"Ha, ha! You mean me to understand that there's no time to waste."
+
+"Not a moment."
+
+"What is the girl like?"
+
+"Tall and slender, pink and white as a flower, dark-lashed and
+yellow-haired, like an Austrian beauty. Eyes gray or violet, it would
+be hard to say which, for a man of my years; but even I can assure you
+that when the lady looks down, then suddenly up again, under those
+dark lashes, it's something to quicken the pulse of any man under
+sixty."
+
+"It would quicken mine only to hear your description, if you hadn't
+just put a maggot in my head that tickles me to laughter instead of
+raptures," said the Prince. "Tell me this; has this girl a tiny black
+mole just over the left eyebrow--very fetching;--and when she smiles,
+does her mouth point upward a bit on the right side, like a fairy
+sign-post showing the way to a small round scar, almost as good as a
+dimple?"
+
+The Chancellor reflected for a few seconds, and then replied that,
+unless his eyesight and his memory had deceived him, both these marks
+were to be met with on Miss Mowbray's face. He did not add that he had
+seen her but once, and at the time had not taken interest enough to
+note details; for it was plain that the Prince had a theory as to the
+lady's real identity; and to establish it as a fact might be valuable.
+
+"Is it possible that you've already met this dangerous young person?"
+he asked eagerly.
+
+"Well, I begin to believe it may be so. I'll explain why later;
+thereby hangs a confession. At all events, a certain lady exactly
+answering the description you've given, is very likely in this
+neighborhood; I've heard that she was shortly due in Kronburg, and it
+was in my mind when deciding suddenly to spend a few days in the woods
+for the sake of seeing you, that I might see her also before I went
+home again. As a matter of fact, the lady and I have had a
+misunderstanding, at a rather unfortunate moment, as I'd just
+imprudently taken her into my confidence concerning--er--some family
+affairs. If it is she who is masquerading in Rhaetia as Miss Mowbray,
+and turning your Emperor's head, it may be that she's trying to
+revenge herself on me. She's pretty enough to beguile St. Anthony, let
+alone a St. Leopold; and she's clever enough to have thought out such
+a scheme. Our small quarrel happened about four weeks ago, and I've
+lost sight of the lady since; she disappeared, expecting probably to
+be followed; but she wasn't. The only question is, if she's playing
+Miss Mowbray, where did she get the mother? I've heard there _is_ a
+Mowbray-mother?"
+
+"There's a faded Dresden china shepherdess that answers to the name,"
+said the Chancellor, dryly. "But these mantelpiece ornaments are
+easily manufactured."
+
+The Prince was amused. "No, she wouldn't stick at a mother, if she
+wanted one," he chuckled. "And while she was about it, she has
+apparently annexed a whole family tree. The black mole, and the
+scar-dimple, you're sure of them, Chancellor? Because, if you are--"
+
+"Oh, I am practically certain!"
+
+"Then, the more pieces in the puzzle which I fit together, the more
+likely does it seem that your Leopold's Miss Helen Mowbray and my Miss
+Jenny Brett are one and the same."
+
+"Miss Jenny Brett?"
+
+"Did you never hear the name?"
+
+"If I have, I've forgotten it."
+
+"Chancellor, you wouldn't if you were a few years younger. Jenny Brett
+is the prettiest if not the most talented singer ever sent out from
+Australia, the fashionable home of singers. She is billed to sing at
+the Court Theater of Kronburg in a fortnight, her first engagement in
+Rhaetia."
+
+"You are right. It may well be that she's been having a game with
+us--a game that we can prevent now, thank Heaven, from ending in
+earnest."
+
+"Oh, yes, we can prevent that."
+
+"Your Royal Highness met the lady in your own country?"
+
+"N-o. It was in Paris at first, but I'm afraid I induced her to accept
+an engagement at home. We were great friends for a while, and really
+she's a charming creature. I can't blame myself. Who would have
+guessed that she'd turn out so ambitious? By Jove, I can sympathize
+with Leopold. The girl tried to twist me round her finger, and I
+verily believe fancied at one time that I would offer her marriage."
+
+"It must be the same girl. And the Emperor _has_ offered her
+marriage."
+
+"What? Impossible! But--with the left hand, of course, though even
+that would be unheard of for a man in his--"
+
+"I swear to your Royal Highness that if he isn't stopped, he will
+force her on the Rhaetian people as Empress."
+
+"Gad! Little Jenny Brett! I didn't half appreciate her brilliant
+qualities."
+
+"Yet I would wager that she appreciated yours."
+
+The Prince shrugged his shoulders. "I believe she really cared
+something for me--a month ago."
+
+"Then she still cares. You are not a man whom a woman can forget,
+though pique or ambition may lead her to try. I tell you, frankly, I
+believe that Providence sent your Royal Highness here at this moment,
+and my best hopes are now pinned on you. You--and no one as well as
+you--can save the Emperor for a nobler fate. Even when I supposed
+you a stranger to this lady who calls herself Helen Mowbray, I
+thought that, if you would consent to meet her and exercise your
+fascinations, there might be hope of averting the danger from my
+master. Now, I hope everything. I beg, I entreat, that your Royal
+Highness will send up your name and ask the lady to see you without
+delay. She will certainly receive you; and when the Emperor learns
+that she has done so, it may go far to disillusion him, for--pardon
+me--your Royal Highness has a great reputation as a lady-killer. Still
+more valuable would it be, however--indeed, he would be cured of his
+infatuation forever, if--if--"
+
+"If what?" inquired the young man, tired of the Chancellor's long
+windedness and beating about the bush.
+
+"If you could persuade her to go out to your hunting lodge. Then
+Leopold and Rhaetia would be saved--by you. What could be better, what
+could be more suitable?"
+
+"What indeed?" echoed the Prince. "For every one concerned,--except
+for Jenny Brett."
+
+"Considering the havoc she has worked among us all, need she be
+considered--before the interests of a great country, and--perhaps I
+may hint--an innocent and lovely Royal lady, whom this girl is doing
+her best to humiliate?"
+
+"I'm hanged if she need be so considered! Anyhow, I'll do what you
+ask. I'll send up my card, and then--we'll see what happens."
+
+The Prince took from his pocket a small gold case, sparkling with
+jewels--a trifle which advertised itself as the gift of a woman. Out
+of this came a card, with a crown over the name in the fashion of his
+country and some others. An equerry, waiting in an adjoining room, was
+summoned; the card given to him; passed on to a hotel servant; and
+then, for five minutes, ten minutes, the old man and the young one
+waited, talking of a subject very near to both their hearts.
+
+At last, when they had no more to say, word came that Lady Mowbray and
+Miss Mowbray would see his Royal Highness.
+
+"The value of a well regulated mother!" laughed the young man, who had
+not troubled to inquire for Lady Mowbray. "Well, whatever comes of
+this interview, Chancellor, I shall presently have something to tell
+you."
+
+"The suspense will be hard to bear," said Count von Breitstein, "but I
+have perfect faith in you. We understand each other completely now;
+but--I'm growing old, and the past few days have tried me sorely.
+Remember, I pray you, all that's at stake, and do not hesitate for an
+instant. Have no false scruple with such a person as this. The Emperor
+will soon arrive in Kronburg. He'll lose no time in trying to find the
+girl, and, once they've had another meeting, all our plans, all our
+precautions, may be in vain. He searches for her, to offer his crown."
+
+The Prince listened, and did not smile as he went out.
+
+He had bidden the Chancellor await his return in the salon of the
+Royal suite, which was always kept at his disposal, when he appeared
+in the neighborhood, as he often did since purchasing the hunting
+lodge a few miles out of Kronburg, in the forest.
+
+Other foreign royalties, or lesser princes from the provinces,
+occasionally occupied the apartments, also; and this handsome Royal
+Highness of to-day was not the only one whom the Chancellor of Rhaetia
+had visited there. He knew by heart the rich purple hangings in the
+salon, with the double wolf-head of Rhaetia stamped in gold at regular
+intervals on the velvet; and he sickened of their splendor now, as the
+moments dragged, and he remained alone.
+
+When half an hour had passed, he could no longer sit still on the
+purple velvet sofa, but began walking up and down, his hands behind
+him, scowling at the full length, oil-painted portraits of Rhaetia's
+dead rulers; glaring a question into his own eyes in the long, gold
+framed mirrors,--a question he would have given his life to hear
+answered in the way he wished.
+
+Three quarters of an hour had gone at last, and still the Chancellor
+paced the purple drawing-room, and still the Prince did not come back
+to tell the news.
+
+Had the young man failed? Had that Siren up-stairs beguiled him, as
+she had beguiled one stronger and greater than he? Was it possible
+that she had lured the whole secret of their scheme from the Prince,
+and then induced him to leave the hotel while her arch enemy fumed in
+the salon, awaiting his return?
+
+But no, there were quick footsteps outside the door; the handle was
+turned. At least, his Royal Highness was not a traitor.
+
+As the Chancellor had confessed, he was growing old. He felt suddenly
+very weak; his lips fell apart, trembling; yet he would not utter the
+words that hung upon them.
+
+Fortunately the Prince read the appeal in the glittering eyes, and did
+not wait to be questioned.
+
+"Well, I've seen the lady and had a talk with her," he said, in a
+voice which was, the old man felt, somehow different in tone from what
+it had been an hour ago.
+
+"And is she the person you have known?"
+
+"Yes, she's a person I have known. It's--it's all right about that
+plan of yours, Chancellor. She's going with me to the lodge."
+
+"Heaven be praised! It seems almost too good to be true. When does she
+go?"
+
+"At once. That is, as soon as she can get ready. She will dine with
+me, and my equerry will stop behind and eat the dinner I had ordered
+here."
+
+"Magnificent. Then she will go with you alone? Nothing could be
+better. The presence of the alleged mother as chaperon would be a
+drawback."
+
+"Oh, no chaperon is needed for us two. The--er--mother remains at the
+hotel with a la--a companion they have, who is ill. It was--er--somewhat
+difficult to arrange this matter, but I don't think the plot I have
+in mind now will fail, provided you carry through your part as smartly
+as I have mine."
+
+"You may depend upon me. Your Royal Highness is marvelous. Am I to
+understand that the lady goes with you quite of her own free will?"
+
+"Quite. I flatter myself that she's rather pleased with the
+invitation. In a few minutes, I and the fair damsel will be spinning
+away for a drive in my red motor; you know, the one which I always
+leave at the lodge, to be ready for use whenever I choose to pay a
+flying visit. I shall keep her out until it's dark, to give you plenty
+of time, but before starting I'll telephone to my _chef_ that, after
+all, I sha'n't be away, and he must prepare dinner for two."
+
+"I also will send a telephone message," said the Chancellor.
+
+"To Leopold?"
+
+"Yes, your Royal Highness. This time there will be no uncertainty in
+my words to him. They will strike home, and, even if he should not be
+intending to come to Kronburg to-night, they will bring him."
+
+"You are sure you know where to catch the Emperor?"
+
+"He'll telephone me from Felgarde, when he has found those he sought
+are not there, as he will; and I must be at my house to receive and
+answer his message. It will soon be time now."
+
+"Very well, all that seems to arrange itself satisfactorily," said the
+Prince. "Our motor drive can be stretched out for an hour and a half.
+The lady will then need to dress. Dinner can be kept back till half
+past eight, if it would suit your book to break in upon us, at the
+table. My dining-room isn't very grand, but it has plenty of light and
+color, and wouldn't make a bad background for the last act of this
+little drama. What do you say, Chancellor? I've always thought that
+your success as a stage manager of the Theater of Nations was
+partially due to your eye for dramatic effects."
+
+"Such effects are not to be despised, considering the audience we
+cater for in that theater."
+
+"Well, I promise you that for our little amateur play to-night, in my
+private theater, the footlights shall be lit, the stage set, and two
+of the principal puppets dressed and painted for the show, before
+nine. I suppose you can introduce the leading man by that time or a
+little later?"
+
+The bristling brows drew together involuntarily. Count von Breitstein
+was working without scruple against the Emperor, for the Emperor's
+good; yet he winced at his accomplice's light jest, and it was by an
+effort that he kept a note of disapproval out of his voice.
+
+"Unless I much mistake, his Majesty will order a special train, as
+soon as he has had my message," said he. "That and everything else
+falling as I confidently expect, I shall be able to bring him out to
+your Royal Highness's hunting lodge a little after nine."
+
+"You'll find us at the third course," prophesied the Prince.
+
+"Naturally, the Emperor's appearance will startle your visitor," went
+on the Chancellor, keenly watching the young man's extraordinarily
+handsome face. "She would not dare take the risk and drive out with
+you, great as the temptation would no doubt be, did she dream that he
+would learn of the escapade, and follow. Indeed, your Royal Highness
+must have found subtile weapons ready to your hand, that you so soon
+broke through the armor of her prudence. I expected much from your
+magnetism and resourceful wit, yet I hardly dared hope for such
+speedy, such unqualified success as this which now seems assured to
+us."
+
+"My weapons were sharpened on my past acquaintance with the pretty
+lady," explained the Prince. "Otherwise the result might have been
+postponed for as many days as I have delayed moments, though at last,
+the end might have been the same."
+
+"Not for Rhaetia. Every instant counts. Thanks to you, we shall win;
+for actress as this girl is, she'll find it a task beyond her powers
+to justify to a jealous man this evening's tete-a-tete with you."
+
+"If she tests those powers in our presence, we can be audience and
+admire her histrionic talents," said the Prince, pleasantly, though
+with some faint, growing sign of constraint or perhaps impatience.
+"There's no doubt in my mind, whatever may be the lady's conception of
+her part, about the final tableau. And after all, it's with that alone
+you concern yourself--eh, Chancellor?"
+
+"It's that alone," echoed the old man.
+
+"Then you would like to go and await the message. There's nothing more
+for us to arrange. _Au revoir_, Chancellor, till nine."
+
+"Till nine."
+
+"When the curtain for the last act will ring up."
+
+The Prince held out his hand. Count von Breitstein grasped it, and
+then hurried to his electric carriage which had been waiting outside
+the hotel. A few minutes later, he was talking over the wire to the
+Emperor in the railway station at Felgarde.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE OLDNESS OF THE CHANCELLOR
+
+
+Leopold thought it more than possible that, by the time of his return
+to Kronburg, the Chancellor would be as anxious to wriggle out of his
+proposal to visit the Prince's hunting lodge, as he had been to have
+it accepted a few hours before.
+
+"He sha'n't escape his humiliation, though," the Emperor told himself.
+"He shall go, and he shall beg forgiveness for his suspicions, in
+sackcloth and ashes. Nothing else can satisfy me now."
+
+Thinking thus, Leopold looked sharply from the window as his special
+slowed into the central station at Kronburg, along the track which had
+been kept clear for its arrival. No other train was due at the moment,
+therefore few persons were on the platform, and a figure in a long
+gray coat, with its face shadowed by a slouch hat, was conspicuous.
+
+The Emperor had expected to see that figure; but vaguely he wished
+there were not so much briskness and self-confidence in the set of the
+massive head and shoulders. The young man believed absolutely in his
+love; but he would have been gratified to detect a something of
+depression in the enemy's air, which he might translate as a
+foreknowledge of failure.
+
+"I hope your Majesty will forgive the liberty I have taken, in coming
+to the station without a distinct invitation to do so," were the
+Chancellor's first words as he met the Emperor. "Knowing that you
+would almost certainly arrive by special train, I came down from my
+house some time ago, that I might be on hand without fail when you
+arrived, to place my electric carriage at your service. I thought it
+probable that you would not have sent to the Palace, and therefore it
+might save you some slight inconvenience if I were on the spot. If you
+will honor my poor conveyance--"
+
+"Don't let us delay our business for explanations or compliments, if
+you please, Chancellor," the Emperor cut him short, brusquely. "I
+counted on your being here, with your carriage. Now for the hunting
+lodge in the woods!"
+
+As he spoke, his eyes were on the old man's face, which he hoped to
+see fall, or change; but there was no visible sign of discomfiture,
+and von Breitstein made no attempt to excuse himself from making the
+proposed visit. Evidently nothing had happened during the hours since
+the message by telephone, to change the Chancellor's mind.
+
+"Yes, your Majesty," came the prompt response. "Now for the hunting
+lodge in the woods. I am ready to go with you there--as I always have
+been, and always shall be ready to serve you when I am needed."
+
+It was on Leopold's tongue to say, that it would be well if his
+Chancellor's readiness could be confined to those occasions when it
+was needed; but he shut his lips upon the words, and walked by the old
+man's side in frozen silence.
+
+The carriage was waiting just outside the station, and the moment the
+two men were seated, the chauffeur started, noiselessly and swiftly.
+
+Both windows were closed, to keep out the chill of the night air, but
+soon Leopold impatiently lowered one, forgetting the Chancellor's
+old-fashioned hatred of draughts, and stared into the night. Already
+they were approaching the outskirts of the great town, and flying
+past the dark warehouses and factories of the neighborhood, they sped
+toward the open country.
+
+The weather, still warm the evening before--that evening of moonlight,
+not to be forgotten--had turned cold with morning; and to-night there
+was a pungent scent of dying leaves in the air. It smote Leopold in
+the face, with the wind of motion, and it seemed to him the essential
+perfume of sadness. Never again would he inhale that fragrance of the
+falling year without recalling this hour.
+
+He was half mad with impatience to reach the end of the journey, and
+confound the Chancellor once for all; yet, as the swift electric
+carriage spun smoothly along the white road, and landmark after
+landmark vanished behind tree-branches laced with stars, something
+within him, would at last have stayed the flying moments, had that
+been possible. He burned to ask questions of von Breitstein, yet would
+have died rather than utter them.
+
+It was a relief to the Emperor, when, after a long silence, his
+companion spoke,--though a relief which carried with it a prick of
+resentment. Even the Chancellor had no right to speak first, without
+permission from his sovereign.
+
+"Forgive me, your Majesty," the old man said. "Your anger is hard to
+bear; yet I bear it uncomplainingly because of my confidence that the
+reward is not far off. I look for it no further in the future than
+to-night."
+
+"I, too, believe that you won't miss your reward!" returned the
+Emperor sharply.
+
+"I shall have it, I am sure, not only in your Majesty's forgiveness,
+but in your thanks."
+
+"I'll forgive you when you've asked my pardon for your suspicions, and
+when you've found Miss Mowbray for me."
+
+"I have already found her, and am taking you to her now."
+
+"Then, you actually believe in your own story? You believe that this
+sweet and beautiful young girl is a fast actress, a schemer, a friend
+of your notoriously gallant friend, and willing to risk her reputation
+by paying a late visit, unchaperoned, to him at his hunting lodge in
+the woods! You are after all a very poor judge of character, if you
+dream that we shall see her there."
+
+"I shall see her, your Majesty. And you will see her, unless the
+madness you call love has blinded the eyes of your body as well as the
+eyes of your mind. That she is now at the lodge I know, for the Prince
+assured me with his own lips that she had promised to motor out alone
+with him, and dine."
+
+"You mean, he told you that his friend the actress had promised. I'll
+stake my life, even he didn't dare to say Miss Mowbray."
+
+"He said Miss Brett, the actress, it's true. But when he called upon
+her at her hotel (where he and I met to discuss a matter which is no
+secret to your Majesty), he asked for Miss Mowbray. And the message
+that came down, I heard. It was that Miss Mowbray would be delighted
+to see his Royal Highness. This left no doubt in my mind that, after
+giving out that she would leave to-day, the lady had remained in
+Kronburg for the express purpose of meeting her dear friend the
+Prince, the handsomest and best dressed young man in Europe--after
+your Majesty, of course. And it was quite natural for her to hope
+that, as she was supposed to be gone, and you were following her, this
+evening's escapade would never be discovered."
+
+"Please spare me your deductions, Chancellor," said the Emperor,
+curtly, "and pray understand now, if you have not understood before,
+that I am with you in this expedition not to prove you right, but
+wrong; and nothing you can say will convince me that the Prince's
+actress and Miss Mowbray are one. If we find a woman at the hunting
+lodge, it will not be the lady we seek--unless she has been kidnapped;
+and as you will presently be obliged to eat every word you've spoken,
+the fewer such bitter pills you provide for yourself to swallow, the
+better."
+
+Thus snubbed by the young man whom he had held in his arms, an
+imperious as well as an Imperial infant, the old statesman sought
+sanctuary in silence. But he had said that which had been in his mind
+to say, and he was satisfied. Meekness was not his _metier_, yet he
+could play the part of the faithful servant, humbly loyal through
+injustice and misunderstanding; and he played it now, because he knew
+it to be the one effective role. He sat beside the Emperor with bowed
+head, and stooping shoulders which suggested the weakness of old age,
+his hands clasped before him; and from time to time he sighed
+patiently.
+
+As they glided under the dark arch of the Buchenwald, Leopold spoke
+again.
+
+"You have led me to suppose that our call at the hunting lodge will be
+a surprise visit to the Prince. That is the case, isn't it?"
+
+Count von Breitstein would have preferred that the question had not
+been asked. He had intended to convey the impression which the Emperor
+had received, but he had not clothed it in actual statement. Luckily
+the Prince was as clever as he was good looking, and he could be
+trusted as an actor, otherwise the old man would have been still more
+reluctant to commit himself.
+
+"Were our visit expected, we should not be likely to find the lady,"
+said he. "The Prince and I are on such friendly terms, your Majesty,
+that he didn't mind confessing he was to have a pretty actress as his
+guest. He also answered a few questions I asked concerning her, freely
+and frankly, for to do so he had to tell me only what the world knows.
+How could he dream that the flirtations or the visits of a Miss Jenny
+Brett could be of the slightest importance to the Emperor of Rhaetia?
+Had he guessed, however, that the entertainment he meant to offer her
+might be interrupted, naturally he would have taken some means to
+protect her from annoyance."
+
+"This night's work will give him cause to pick a private quarrel with
+me, if he likes," said the Emperor, convinced of the Chancellor's good
+faith.
+
+"I don't think he will choose, your Majesty. You are in a mood to be
+glad if he did, I fear. But no; I need _not_ fear. You will always
+remember Rhaetia, and put her interests before your own wishes."
+
+"You weren't as confident of that a few hours ago."
+
+"Even then I knew that, when the real test should be applied, your
+Majesty's cool head would triumph over the hot impulse of youth. But
+see, we're passing through the village of Inseleden, fast asleep
+already; every window dark. In six or seven minutes at this speed, we
+shall be at the lodge."
+
+The Emperor laughed shortly. "Add another seven minutes to your first
+seven, and we shall be out of the lodge again, with Chancellor von
+Breitstein a sadder and a wiser man than he went in."
+
+Meekness was once more the part for the old man to play, and raising
+his hands, palm upwards, in a gesture of generous indulgence for his
+young sovereign, he denied himself the pleasure of retort.
+
+The hunting lodge in the wood, now the property of the Chancellor's
+accommodating young friend, had until recently belonged to a Rhaetian
+semi-Royal Prince, who had been compelled by lack of sympathy among
+his creditors to sell something, and had promptly sold the thing he
+cared for least. The present owner was a keen sportsman, and though he
+came seldom to the place, had spent a good deal of money in repairing
+the quaint, rustic house.
+
+Years had passed since the Emperor had done more than pass the lodge
+gates; and now the outlines of the low rambling structure looked
+strange to him, silhouetted against a spangled sky. He was glad of
+this, for he had spent some joyous days here as a boy, and he wished
+to separate the old impressions and the new.
+
+Two tall chimneys stood up like the pricked ears of some alert,
+crouching animal. The path to the lodge gleamed white and straight in
+the darkness as a parting in the rough black hair of a giant. The
+trees whispered gossip to each other in the wind, and it seemed to
+Leopold that they were evil things telling lies and slandering his
+love. He hated them, and their rustling, which once he had loved. He
+hated the yellow eyes of the animal with the pricked ears, glittering
+eyes which were lighted windows; he hated the young Prince who owned
+the place; and he would have hated the Chancellor more than all, had
+not the old man limped as he walked up the path, showing how heavy was
+the burden of his years, as he had never shown it to his Emperor
+before.
+
+The path led to a hooded entrance, and ascending the two stone steps,
+the Chancellor lifted the mailed glove which did duty as a knocker.
+Twice he brought it down on the oak panel underneath, and the sound of
+metal smiting against wood went echoing through the house, with an
+effect of emptiness and desolation.
+
+Nobody came to answer the summons, and Leopold smiled in the darkness.
+He thought it likely that even the Prince was not at home. A practical
+joke had been played on the Chancellor!
+
+Again the mailed fist struck the panel; an echo alone replied. Count
+von Breitstein began to be alarmed for the success of his plan. He
+thanked the night which hid from the keen eyes of the Emperor--cynical
+now, no doubt--the telltale vein beating hard in his forehead.
+
+"Don't you think, Chancellor, that after all, you'd better try and
+take me to some more probable, as well as more suitable, place to look
+for Miss Mowbray?" he suggested, with a drawl intended to be as
+aggravating as it actually was. "There doesn't appear to be any one
+about. Even the care-takers are out courting, perhaps."
+
+"But listen, your Majesty," said von Breitstein, when he knocked
+again.
+
+Leopold did listen, and heard the ring of a heel on a floor of stone
+or marble.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+NOT AT HOME
+
+
+It was a jaeger clad in green who opened the door of the hunting lodge,
+and gazed, apparently without recognition, at the two men standing in
+the dark embrasure of the porch.
+
+"We wish to see his Royal Highness, your master," said the Chancellor,
+taking the initiative, as he knew the Emperor would wish him to do.
+
+"His Royal Highness is not at home, sir," replied the jaeger.
+
+Leopold's eyes lightened as he threw a glance of sarcastic meaning at
+his companion. But Iron Heart was undaunted. He knew very well now,
+that this was only a prelude to the drama which would follow; and
+though he had suffered a sharp pang of anxiety at first, he saw that
+his Royal friend was playing with commendable realism. Naturally, when
+beautiful young actresses ventured into the forest unchaperoned, to
+dine with fascinating princes, the least that such favored gentlemen
+could do was to be "not at home" to an intrusive public.
+
+"You are mistaken," insisted the Chancellor, "his Royal Highness is at
+home, and will receive us. It will be better for you to admit us
+without further delay."
+
+Under the domination of those eyes which could quell a turbulent
+Reichstag, the jaeger weakened, as his master had doubtless expected
+him to do after the first resistance.
+
+"It may be I have made a mistake, sir," he stammered, "though I do not
+think so. If you will have the kindness to walk in and wait for a few
+minutes until I can inquire whether his Royal Highness has come home,
+or will come home--"
+
+"That is not necessary," said the Chancellor. "His Royal Highness
+dines here this evening. We will go with you to the door of the
+dining-room, which you will open for us, and announce that two
+gentlemen wish to see him."
+
+[Illustration: _At sight of her the Emperor stopped on the threshold_]
+
+With this, all uncertainty in the mind of the jaeger was swept away.
+He knew his duty and determined to stand by it; and the Chancellor
+saw that, if the master had given instructions meaning them to be
+over-ridden, at least the servant was sincere. He put himself in the
+doorway, and looked an obstacle difficult to dislodge.
+
+"That is impossible, sir!" he exclaimed. "I have had my orders, which
+are that his Royal Highness is not at home to-night, and until I know
+whether or not these orders are to stand, nobody, not if it were the
+Emperor, should force his way."
+
+"Fool, those orders are not for us; and it is the Emperor who will go
+in." With a step aside, the Chancellor let the light from the hanging
+lamp in the hall shine full upon Leopold's face, hitherto masked in
+shadow.
+
+His boast forgotten, the jaeger uttered a cry of dismay, and with a
+sudden failing of the knees, he moved, and left the doorway free.
+
+"Your Majesty!" he faltered. "I did not see--I could not know. Most
+humbly I beg your Majesty's gracious pardon. If your Majesty will but
+hold me blameless with my master--"
+
+"Never mind yourself, and never mind your master," broke in the
+Chancellor. "Open that door at the end of the hall, and announce the
+Emperor and Count von Breitstein."
+
+The unfortunate jaeger, approaching a state of collapse, obeyed. The
+door of the dining-room, which Leopold knew of old, was thrown open,
+and a quavering voice heralded "His Imperial Majesty the Emperor, and
+the Herr Chancellor Count von Breitstein."
+
+The scene disclosed was as unreal to Leopold's eyes as a painted
+picture; the walls of Pompeian red; the gold candelabra; the polished
+floor, spread with the glimmering fur of Polar bears; and in the
+center a flower-decked table lit with pink-shaded lights, and
+sparkling with gold and crystal; springing up from a chair which faced
+the door, a young man in evening dress; sitting motionless, her back
+half turned, a slender girl in bridal white.
+
+At sight of her the Emperor stopped on the threshold. All the blood in
+his body seemed rushing to his head, then surging back upon his heart.
+
+The impossible had happened.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+THE THIRD COURSE
+
+
+The Prince came forward. "What a delightful surprise," he said. "How
+good of you both to look me up! But I wish my prophetic soul had
+warned me to keep back dinner. We have just reached the third course."
+And his eyes met the Chancellor's.
+
+"All the same," he went on, "I beg that you will honor me by dining.
+Everything can be ready in a moment; and the _bisque eccrevisso_--"
+
+"Thank you," cut in the Emperor. "We cannot dine." His voice came
+hoarsely, as if a fierce hand pinched his throat. "Our call is purely
+one of business, and--a moment will see it finished. We owe you an
+explanation for this intrusion." He paused. All his calculations were
+upset by the Chancellor's triumph; for to plan beforehand, what he
+should do if he found Helen Mowbray dining here alone with the
+Prince, would have been to insult her. His campaign had been arranged
+in the event of the Chancellor's defeat.
+
+Now, the one course he saw open before him was frankness.
+
+To look at the girl, and meet guilt or defiance in her eyes would be
+agony, therefore he would not look, though he saw her, and her alone,
+as he stood gazing with a strained fixedness at the Prince.
+
+He knew that she had risen, not in frightened haste, but with a
+leisured and dainty dignity. Now, her face was turned to him. He felt
+it, as a blind man may feel the rising of the sun.
+
+He wished that she had died before this moment, that they had both
+died last night in the garden, while he held her in his arms, and
+their hearts beat together. She had told him then that she loved him;
+yet she was here, with this man--here, of her own free will, the same
+girl he had worshiped as a goddess in the white moonlight, twenty-four
+hours ago.
+
+The thought was hot in his heart as the searing touch of iron red from
+the fire. The same girl!
+
+His blood sang in his ears, a song of death, and for an instant all
+was black around him. He groped in black chaos where there was
+neither light nor hope, and dully he was conscious of the Chancellor's
+voice saying, "Your Majesty, if you are satisfied, would you not
+rather go?"
+
+Then the dark spell broke. Light showered over him, as from a golden
+fountain, for in spite of himself he had met the girl's eyes. The same
+eyes, because she was the same girl; sweet eyes, pure and innocent,
+and wistfully appealing.
+
+"My God!" he cried, "tell me why you are here, and whatever you may
+say, I will believe you, in spite of all and through all, because you
+are You, and I know that you can do no wrong."
+
+"Your Majesty!" exclaimed the Chancellor. But the Emperor did not
+hear. With a broken exclamation that was half a sob, the girl held out
+both her hands, and Leopold sprang forward to crush them between his
+ice-cold palms.
+
+"Thank Heaven!" she faltered. "You are true! You've stood the test. I
+love you."
+
+"At last, then, I can introduce you to my sister Virginia," said the
+Crown Prince of Hungaria, with a great sigh of relief for the ending
+of his difficult part.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+AFTER THE CURTAIN WENT DOWN
+
+
+They were alone together. Adalbert and Count von Breitstein had stolen
+from the room, and had ceased to exist for Leopold and Virginia.
+
+"I'll tell you now, why I'm here, and everything else," she was
+saying; but the Emperor stopped her.
+
+"Ever since I came to myself, I wanted no explanation," he said. "I
+wanted only you. That is all I want now. I am the happiest man in the
+universe. Why should I ask how I came by my happiness? Virginia!
+Virginia! It's a more beautiful name even than Helen."
+
+"But listen," she pleaded. "There are some things--just a few
+things--that I long to tell you. Please let me. Last night I wished to
+go into a convent. Oh, it was because I loved you so much, I wanted
+you to seem perfect, as my hero of romance, just as you were already
+perfect as an Emperor. To think that I should have been far away, out
+of Rhaetia, by this time, if Miss Portman hadn't been ill. Dear Miss
+Portman! Maybe if we'd gone, nothing would ever have come right. Who
+can say?
+
+"You know, my brother came to our hotel this afternoon. When his card
+arrived, we couldn't tell whether he knew our secret or not; but when
+we had let him come up, we had only to see his face of surprise! He
+was angry, too, as well as surprised, for he blurted out that there
+were all sorts of horrid suspicions against us, and mother explained
+everything to him before I could have stopped her, even if I would;
+how I had not wanted to accept you unless you could learn to love me
+for myself, and then--how I had been disappointed. No, don't speak;
+that's all over now. You've more than atoned, a thousand times more.
+
+"Dal explained things, too, then--very different things; about a
+plan of the Chancellor's to disgust you with me, and how he--Dal--had
+played into the Chancellor's hands, because, you see, he thought he
+was acting wisely for his neglected sister's sake, and because he had
+really supposed an actress he knows was masquerading as Miss
+Mowbray. Very imprudently he'd told her that some day there might
+be--something between you and his sister. She knew quite well, too,
+that the real Mowbrays were our cousins; so you see, as she and he
+have quarreled it might have been an easy and clever way for an
+unscrupulous woman to take revenge. Dal would have gone, and perhaps
+have said dreadful things to the Chancellor, who was waiting
+down-stairs for news, but I begged him not. From being the saddest
+girl in the world, I'd suddenly become the happiest, for the
+Chancellor had told Dal, and Dal had told me, that you had _followed
+Helen Mowbray to ask her to be the Empress_. That changed everything,
+for then I knew you really loved her; but--just to punish you for what
+I suffered through you last night, I longed to put you to one more
+test. I said, 'Let the Chancellor carry out his plot. Let me go with
+you to your hunting lodge.' At first Dal wouldn't consent, but when I
+begged him, he did,--for generally I can get my way with people, I
+warn you.
+
+[Illustration: "_We shall never be old, for we love each other," said
+the Emperor_]
+
+"That's all, except that I hadn't realized how severe the test would
+be, until you came in and I saw the look in your eyes. It was a dagger
+of ice in my heart. I prayed Heaven to make you believe in me, without
+a word, oh, _how_ I prayed through all that dreadful moment, and
+how I looked at you, saying with my eyes, 'I love you; I am true.' If
+you had failed me then, it would have killed me, but--"
+
+"There could be no but," the Emperor broke in. "To doubt is not to
+love. When a man loves, he knows. Even out of darkness, a light comes
+and tells him."
+
+"Then you forgive me--for to-night, and for everything, from the
+beginning?"
+
+"Forgive you?"
+
+"And if I'd been different, more like other girls content with a
+conventional affection, you wouldn't have loved me more?"
+
+He took her in his arms and held her as if he would never let her go.
+
+"If you had been different, I wouldn't have loved you at all," he
+said. "But if _things_ had been different, I couldn't have helped
+loving you, just the same. I should have been fated to fall in love
+with Princess Virginia of Baumenburg-Drippe at first sight, exactly I
+as fell in love with Helen Mowbray--"
+
+"Ah, but at best you'd have fallen in love with Virginia because it
+was your duty; and you fell in love with Helen Mowbray because it was
+your duty not to. Which makes it so much nicer."
+
+"It was no question of duty, but of destiny," said the Emperor. "The
+stars ordained that I should love you."
+
+"Then I wish--" and Virginia laughed happily, as she could afford to
+laugh now--"that the stars had told me, last summer. It would have
+saved me a great deal of trouble. And yet I don't know," she added
+thoughtfully, "it's been a wonderful adventure. We shall often talk of
+it when we're old."
+
+"We shall never be old, for we love each other," said the Emperor.
+
+                         THE END
+
+
+
+
+By C. N. & A. M. Williamson
+
+LADY BETTY ACROSS THE WATER
+
+
+The discovery of America by one of the most engaging, appealing and
+altogether delicious little English maids that ever "crossed the
+water." Everybody will be delighted to learn precisely how Lady Betty
+found us and what things in our life particularly struck her wide-open
+eyes and gave her food for fun and reflection. Evidently she did not
+find us all savages for there was one man--but we must not anticipate
+the charming story which is unfolded.
+
+     "She is a dear, delightful heroine with a love story to
+     reveal, which is fresh, naive, and altogether charming; and
+     the manner of its revealing is buoyant and gracious."
+     _Chicago News._
+
+Six illustrations in colors by Orson Lowell. $1.50
+
+
+
+
+By C. N. & A. M. Williamson
+
+MY FRIEND THE CHAUFFEUR
+
+
+An automobile romance that rushes all the way through on the third
+speed. From the start in the Riviera to the finish among the mountains
+of Montenegro, there is no let up in the entertainment and excitement
+which this book affords. There are adventures without number on the
+open road, delightful descriptions of scenery in Italy and Dalmatia,
+and a triple love story deliciously blending sentiment and comedy.
+
+     "It is airy, jolly, refreshing, wholesome, full of
+     adventure, movement, fun and good spirits, sunshine and
+     fresh air." _N. Y. Mail._
+
+Illustrated by Lowenheim. $1.50
+
+
+
+
+By C. N. & A. M. Williamson
+
+ROSEMARY
+
+
+Fascinating beyond words is this exquisitely dainty tale, dealing with
+the finer affections of a child and her mother, of a young man true to
+a first love. The scene is laid at Monte Carlo in the beautiful green
+Christmas-time. With the fantastic idea implanted by her nurse that on
+Christmas eve the fairies granted to one her dearest wish, little
+Rosemary, who lost her father at birth, sallies forth, stops a young
+man in his motor-car and discovers in him the "fairy father" of her
+dreams. Hugh Egerton turns out to be her mother's first love, and
+there is a heart-warming reunion and a joyful celebration.
+
+     "An exquisite bit of literary handicraft. The motive of the
+     story is so sweet and tender that from the first there are
+     chords touched in the heart." _Buffalo Courier._
+
+Superbly Illustrated from drawings by Hatherell and with border
+decorations. $1.50
+
+
+
+
+TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE:
+
+Minor changes have been made to correct typesetters' errors;
+otherwise, every effort has been made to remain true to the author's
+words and intent.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Princess Virginia, by
+C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PRINCESS VIRGINIA ***
+
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