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@@ -0,0 +1,3075 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Princess Aline, by Richard Harding Davis + +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 Aline + +Author: Richard Harding Davis + +Release Date: May 6, 2008 [EBook #327] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PRINCESS ALINE *** + + + + + + + + + + + + +THE PRINCESS ALINE + + +BY + +RICHARD HARDING DAVIS + + + + + +THE PRINCESS ALINE + + +I + + +H. R. H. the Princess Aline of Hohenwald came into the life of Morton +Carlton--or "Morney" Carlton, as men called him--of New York city, when +that young gentleman's affairs and affections were best suited to +receive her. Had she made her appearance three years sooner or three +years later, it is quite probable that she would have passed on out of +his life with no more recognition from him than would have been +expressed in a look of admiring curiosity. + +But coming when she did, when his time and heart were both unoccupied, +she had an influence upon young Mr. Carlton which led him into doing +several wise and many foolish things, and which remained with him +always. Carlton had reached a point in his life, and very early in his +life, when he could afford to sit at ease and look back with modest +satisfaction to what he had forced himself to do, and forward with +pleasurable anticipations to whatsoever he might choose to do in the +future. The world had appreciated what he had done, and had put much +to his credit, and he was prepared to draw upon this grandly. + +At the age of twenty he had found himself his own master, with +excellent family connections, but with no family, his only relative +being a bachelor uncle, who looked at life from the point of view of +the Union Club's windows, and who objected to his nephew's leaving +Harvard to take up the study of art in Paris. In that city (where at +Julian's he was nicknamed the junior Carlton, for the obvious reason +that he was the older of the two Carltons in the class, and because he +was well dressed) he had shown himself a harder worker than others who +were less careful of their appearance and of their manners. His work, +of which he did not talk, and his ambitions, of which he also did not +talk, bore fruit early, and at twenty-six he had become a +portrait-painter of international reputation. Then the French +government purchased one of his paintings at an absurdly small figure, +and placed it in the Luxembourg, from whence it would in time depart to +be buried in the hall of some provincial city; and American +millionaires, and English Lord Mayors, members of Parliament, and +members of the Institute, masters of hounds in pink coats, and +ambassadors in gold lace, and beautiful women of all nationalities and +conditions sat before his easel. And so when he returned to New York +he was welcomed with an enthusiasm which showed that his countrymen had +feared that the artistic atmosphere of the Old World had stolen him +from them forever. He was particularly silent, even at this date, +about his work, and listened to what others had to say of it with much +awe, not unmixed with some amusement, that it should be he who was +capable of producing anything worthy of such praise. We have been told +what the mother duck felt when her ugly duckling turned into a swan, +but we have never considered how much the ugly duckling must have +marvelled also. + +"Carlton is probably the only living artist," a brother artist had said +of him, "who fails to appreciate how great his work is." And on this +being repeated to Carlton by a good-natured friend, he had replied +cheerfully, "Well, I'm sorry, but it is certainly better to be the only +one who doesn't appreciate it than to be the only one who does." + +He had never understood why such a responsibility had been intrusted to +him. It was, as he expressed it, not at all in his line, and young +girls who sought to sit at the feet of the master found him making love +to them in the most charming manner in the world, as though he were not +entitled to all the rapturous admiration of their very young hearts, +but had to sue for it like any ordinary mortal. Carlton always felt as +though some day some one would surely come along and say: "Look here, +young man, this talent doesn't belong to you; it's mine. What do you +mean by pretending that such an idle good-natured youth as yourself is +entitled to such a gift of genius?" He felt that he was keeping it in +trust, as it were; that it had been changed at birth, and that the +proper guardian would eventually relieve him of his treasure. + +Personally Carlton was of the opinion that he should have been born in +the active days of knights-errant--to have had nothing more serious to +do than to ride abroad with a blue ribbon fastened to the point of his +lance, and with the spirit to unhorse any one who objected to its +color, or to the claims of superiority of the noble lady who had tied +it there. There was not, in his opinion, at the present day any +sufficiently pronounced method of declaring admiration for the many +lovely women this world contained. A proposal of marriage he +considered to be a mean and clumsy substitute for the older way, and +was uncomplimentary to the many other women left unasked, and marriage +itself required much more constancy than he could give. He had a most +romantic and old-fashioned ideal of women as a class, and from the age +of fourteen had been a devotee of hundreds of them as individuals; and +though in that time his ideal had received several severe shocks, he +still believed that the "not impossible she" existed somewhere, and his +conscientious efforts to find out whether every women he met might not +be that one had led him not unnaturally into many difficulties. + +"The trouble with me is," he said, "that I care too much to make +Platonic friendship possible, and don't care enough to marry any +particular woman--that is, of course, supposing that any particular one +would be so little particular as to be willing to marry me. How +embarrassing it would be, now," he argued, "if, when you were turning +away from the chancel after the ceremony, you should look at one of the +bridesmaids and see the woman whom you really should have married! How +distressing that would be! You couldn't very well stop and say: 'I am +very sorry, my dear, but it seems I have made a mistake. That young +woman on the right has a most interesting and beautiful face. I am +very much afraid that she is the one.' It would be too late then; +while now, in my free state, I can continue my search without any +sense of responsibility." + +"Why"--he would exclaim--"I have walked miles to get a glimpse of a +beautiful woman in a suburban window, and time and time again when I +have seen a face in a passing brougham I have pursued it in a hansom, +and learned where the owner of the face lived, and spent weeks in +finding some one to present me, only to discover that she was +self-conscious or uninteresting or engaged. Still I had assured myself +that she was not the one. I am very conscientious, and I consider that +it is my duty to go so far with every woman I meet as to be able to +learn whether she is or is not the one, and the sad result is that I am +like a man who follows the hounds but is never in at the death." + +"Well," some married woman would say, grimly, "I hope you will get your +deserts some day; and you WILL, too. Some day some girl will make you +suffer for this." + +"Oh, that's all right," Carlton would answer, meekly. "Lots of women +have made me suffer, if that's what you think I need." + +"Some day," the married woman would prophesy, "you will care for a +woman so much that you will have no eyes for any one else. That's the +way it is when one is married." + +"Well, when that's the way it is with ME," Carlton would reply, "I +certainly hope to get married; but until it is, I think it is safer for +all concerned that I should not." + +Then Carlton would go to the club and complain bitterly to one of his +friends. + +"How unfair married women are!" he would say. "The idea of thinking a +man could have no eyes but for one woman! Suppose I had never heard a +note of music until I was twenty-five years of age, and was then given +my hearing. Do you suppose my pleasure in music would make me lose my +pleasure in everything else? Suppose I met and married a girl at +twenty-five. Is that going to make me forget all the women I knew +before I met her? I think not. As a matter of fact, I really deserve +a great deal of credit for remaining single, for I am naturally very +affectionate; but when I see what poor husbands my friends make, I +prefer to stay as I am until I am sure that I will make a better one. +It is only fair to the woman." + +Carlton was sitting in the club alone. He had that sense of +superiority over his fellows and of irresponsibility to the world about +him that comes to a man when he knows that his trunks are being packed +and that his state-room is engaged. He was leaving New York long +before most of his friends could get away. He did not know just where +he was going, and preferred not to know. He wished to have a complete +holiday, and to see Europe as an idle tourist, and not as an artist +with an eye to his own improvement. He had plenty of time and money; +he was sure to run across friends in the big cities, and acquaintances +he could make or not, as he pleased, en route. He was not sorry to go. +His going would serve to put an end to what gossip there might be of +his engagement to numerous young women whose admiration for him as an +artist, he was beginning to fear, had taken on a more personal tinge. +"I wish," he said, gloomily, "I didn't like people so well. It seems +to cause them and me such a lot of trouble." + +He sighed, and stretched out his hand for a copy of one of the English +illustrated papers. It had a fresher interest to him because the next +number of it that he would see would be in the city in which it was +printed. The paper in his hands was the St. James Budget, and it +contained much fashionable intelligence concerning the preparations for +a royal wedding which was soon to take place between members of two of +the reigning families of Europe. There was on one page a half-tone +reproduction of a photograph, which showed a group of young people +belonging to several of these reigning families, with their names and +titles printed above and below the picture. They were princesses, +archdukes, or grand-dukes, and they were dressed like young English men +and women, and with no sign about them of their possible military or +social rank. + +One of the young princesses in the photograph was looking out of it and +smiling in a tolerant, amused way, as though she had thought of +something which she could not wait to enjoy until after the picture was +taken. She was not posing consciously, as were some of the others, but +was sitting in a natural attitude, with one arm over the back of her +chair, and with her hands clasped before her. Her face was full of a +fine intelligence and humor, and though one of the other princesses in +the group was far more beautiful, this particular one had a much more +high-bred air, and there was something of a challenge in her smile that +made any one who looked at the picture smile also. Carlton studied the +face for some time, and mentally approved of its beauty; the others +seemed in comparison wooden and unindividual, but this one looked like +a person he might have known, and whom he would certainly have liked. +He turned the page and surveyed the features of the Oxford crew with +lesser interest, and then turned the page again and gazed critically +and severely at the face of the princess with the high-bred smile. He +had hoped that he would find it less interesting at a second glance, +but it did not prove to be so. + +"'The Princess Aline of Hohenwald,'" he read. "She's probably engaged +to one of those Johnnies beside her, and the Grand-Duke of Hohenwald +behind her must be her brother." He put the paper down and went into +luncheon, and diverted himself by mixing a salad dressing; but after a +few moments he stopped in the midst of this employment, and told the +waiter, with some unnecessary sharpness, to bring him the last copy of +the St. James Budget. + +"Confound it!" he added, to himself. + +He opened the paper with a touch of impatience and gazed long and +earnestly at the face of the Princess Aline, who continued to return +his look with the same smile of amused tolerance. Carlton noted every +detail of her tailor-made gown, of her high mannish collar, of her tie, +and even the rings on her hand. There was nothing about her of which +he could fairly disapprove. He wondered why it was that she could not +have been born an approachable New York girl instead of a princess of a +little German duchy, hedged in throughout her single life, and to be +traded off eventually in marriage with as much consideration as though +she were a princess of a real kingdom. + +"She looks jolly too," he mused, in an injured tone; "and so very +clever; and of course she has a beautiful complexion. All those German +girls have. Your Royal Highness is more than pretty," he said, bowing +his head gravely. "You look as a princess should look. I am sure it +was one of your ancestors who discovered the dried pea under a dozen +mattresses." He closed the paper, and sat for a moment with a +perplexed smile of consideration. "Waiter," he exclaimed, suddenly, +"send a messenger-boy to Brentano's for a copy of the St. James Budget, +and bring me the Almanach de Gotha from the library. It is a little +fat red book on the table near the window." Then Carlton opened the +paper again and propped it up against a carafe, and continued his +critical survey of the Princess Aline. He seized the Almanach, when it +came, with some eagerness. + +"Hohenwald (Maison de Grasse)," he read, and in small type below it: + + +"1. Ligne cadette (regnante) grand-ducale: Hohenwald et de Grasse. + +"Guillaume-Albert-Frederick-Charles-Louis, Grand-Duc de Hohenwald et de +Grasse, etc., etc., etc." + + +"That's the brother, right enough," muttered Carlton. + +And under the heading "Soeurs" he read: + + +"4. Psse Aline.--Victoria-Beatrix-Louise-Helene, Alt. Gr.-Duc. Nee a +Grasse, Juin, 1872." + + +"Twenty-two years old," exclaimed Carlton. "What a perfect age! I +could not have invented a better one." He looked from the book to the +face before him. "Now, my dear young lady," he said, "I know all about +YOU. You live at Grasse, and you are connected, to judge by your +names, with all the English royalties; and very pretty names they are, +too--Aline, Helene, Victoria, Beatrix. You must be much more English +than you are German; and I suppose you live in a little old castle, and +your brother has a standing army of twelve men, and some day you are to +marry a Russian Grand-Duke, or whoever your brother's Prime Minister--if +he has a Prime Minister--decides is best for the politics of your little +toy kingdom. Ah! to think," exclaimed Carlton, softly, "that such a +lovely and glorious creature as that should be sacrificed for so +insignificant a thing as the peace of Europe when she might make some +young man happy?" + +He carried a copy of the paper to his room, and cut the picture of the +group out of the page and pasted it carefully on a stiff piece of +card-board. Then he placed it on his dressing-table, in front of a +photograph of a young woman in a large silver frame--which was a sign, +had the young woman but known it, that her reign for the time being was +over. + +Nolan, the young Irishman who "did for" Carlton, knew better than to +move it when he found it there. He had learned to study his master +since he had joined him in London, and understood that one photograph +in the silver frame was entitled to more consideration than three +others on the writing-desk or half a dozen on the mantel-piece. Nolan +had seen them come and go; he had watched them rise and fall; he had +carried notes to them, and books and flowers; and had helped to dispose +them from the silver frame and move them on by degrees down the line, +until they went ingloriously into the big brass bowl on the side table. +Nolan approved highly of this last choice. He did not know which one +of the three in the group it might be; but they were all pretty, and +their social standing was certainly distinguished. + +Guido, the Italian model who ruled over the studio, and Nolan were +busily packing when Carlton entered. He always said that Guido +represented him in his professional and Nolan in his social capacity. +Guido cleaned the brushes and purchased the artists' materials; Nolan +cleaned his riding-boots and bought his theatre and railroad tickets. + +"Guido," said Carlton, "there are two sketches I made in Germany last +year, one of the Prime Minister, and one of Ludwig the actor; get them +out for me, will you, and pack them for shipping. Nolan," he went on, +"here is a telegram to send." + +Nolan would not have read a letter, but he looked upon telegrams as +public documents, the reading of them as part of his perquisites. This +one was addressed to Oscar Von Holtz, First Secretary, German Embassy, +Washington, D.C., and the message read: + + +"Please telegraph me full title and address Princess Aline of +Hohenwald. Where would a letter reach her? + +"MORTON CARLTON." + + +The next morning Nolan carried to the express office a box containing +two oil-paintings on small canvases. They were addressed to the man in +London who attended to the shipping and forwarding of Carlton's +pictures in that town. + + +There was a tremendous crowd on the New York. She sailed at the +obliging hour of eleven in the morning, and many people, in +consequence, whose affection would not have stood in the way of their +breakfast, made it a point to appear and to say goodbye. Carlton, for +his part, did not notice them; he knew by experience that the +attractive-looking people always leave a steamer when the whistle +blows, and that the next most attractive-looking, who remain on board, +are ill all the way over. A man that he knew seized him by the arm as +he was entering his cabin, and asked if he were crossing or just seeing +people off. + +"Well, then, I want to introduce you to Miss Morris and her aunt, Mrs. +Downs; they are going over, and I should be glad if you would be nice +to them. But you know her, I guess?" he asked, over his shoulder, as +Carlton pushed his way after him down the deck. + +"I know who she is," he said. + +Miss Edith Morris was surrounded by a treble circle of admiring +friends, and seemed to be holding her own. They all stopped when +Carlton came up, and looked at him rather closely, and those whom he +knew seemed to mark the fact by a particularly hearty greeting. The +man who had brought him up acted as though he had successfully +accomplished a somewhat difficult and creditable feat. Carlton bowed +himself away, leaving Miss Morris to her friends, and saying that she +would probably have to see him later, whether she wished it or not. He +then went to meet the aunt, who received him kindly, for there were +very few people on the passenger list, and she was glad they were to +have his company. Before he left she introduced him to a young man +named Abbey, who was hovering around her most anxiously, and whose +interest, she seemed to think it necessary to explain, was due to the +fact that he was engaged to Miss Morris. Mr. Abbey left the steamer +when the whistle blew, and Carlton looked after him gratefully. He +always enjoyed meeting attractive girls who were engaged, as it left +him no choice in the matter, and excused him from finding out whether +or not that particular young woman was the one. + +Mrs. Downs and her niece proved to be experienced sailors, and faced +the heavy sea that met the New York outside of Sandy Hook with +unconcern. Carlton joined them, and they stood together leaning with +their backs to the rail, and trying to fit the people who flitted past +them to the names on the passenger list. + +"The young lady in the sailor suit," said Miss Morris, gazing at the +top of the smoke-stack, "is Miss Kitty Flood, of Grand Rapids. This is +her first voyage, and she thinks a steamer is something like a yacht, +and dresses for the part accordingly. She does not know that it is +merely a moving hotel." + +"I am afraid," said Carlton, "to judge from her agitation, that hers is +going to be what the professionals call a 'dressing-room' part. Why is +it," he asked, "that the girls on a steamer who wear gold anchors and +the men in yachting-caps are always the first to disappear? That man +with the sombrero," he went on, "is James M. Pollock, United States +Consul to Mauritius; he is going out to his post. I know he is the +consul, because he comes from Fort Worth, Texas, and is therefore +admirably fitted to speak either French or the native language of the +island." + +"Oh, we don't send consuls to Mauritius," laughed Miss Morris. +"Mauritius is one of those places from which you buy stamps, but no one +really lives or goes there." + +"Where are you going, may I ask?" inquired Carlton. + +Miss Morris said that they were making their way to Constantinople and +Athens, and then to Rome; that as they had not had the time to take the +southern route, they purposed to journey across the Continent direct +from Paris to the Turkish capital by the Orient Express. + +"We shall be a few days in London, and in Paris only long enough for +some clothes," she replied. + +"The trousseau," thought Carlton. "Weeks is what she should have said." + +The three sat together at the captain's table, and as the sea continued +rough, saw little of either the captain or his other guests, and were +thrown much upon the society of each other. They had innumerable +friends and interests in common; and Mrs. Downs, who had been +everywhere, and for long seasons at a time, proved as alive as her +niece, and Carlton conceived a great liking for her. She seemed to be +just and kindly minded, and, owing to her age, to combine the wider +judgment of a man with the sympathetic interest of a woman. Sometimes +they sat together in a row and read, and gossiped over what they read, +or struggled up the deck as it rose and fell and buffeted with the +wind; and later they gathered in a corner of the saloon and ate late +suppers of Carlton's devising, or drank tea in the captain's cabin, +which he had thrown open to them. They had started knowing much about +one another, and this and the necessary proximity of the ship hastened +their acquaintance. + +The sea grew calmer the third day out, and the sun came forth and +showed the decks as clean as bread-boards. Miss Morris and Carlton +seated themselves on the huge iron riding-bits in the bow, and with +their elbows on the rail looked down at the whirling blue water, and +rejoiced silently in the steady rush of the great vessel, and in the +uncertain warmth of the March sun. Carlton was sitting to leeward of +Miss Morris, with a pipe between his teeth. He was warm, and at peace +with the world. He had found his new acquaintance more than +entertaining. She was even friendly, and treated him as though he were +much her junior, as is the habit of young women lately married or who +are about to be married. Carlton did not resent it; on the contrary, +it made him more at his ease with her, and as she herself chose to +treat him as a youth, he permitted himself to be as foolish as he +pleased. + +"I don't know why it is," he complained, peering over the rail, "but +whenever I look over the side to watch the waves a man in a greasy cap +always sticks his head out of a hole below me and scatters a barrelful +of ashes or potato peelings all over the ocean. It spoils the effect +for one. Next time he does it I am going to knock out the ashes of my +pipe on the back of his neck." Miss Morris did not consider this +worthy of comment, and there was a long lazy pause. + +"You haven't told us where you go after London," she said; and then, +without waiting for him to reply, she asked, "Is it your professional +or your social side that you are treating to a trip this time?" + +"Who told you that?" asked Carlton, smiling. + +"Oh, I don't know. Some man. He said you were a Jekyll and Hyde. +Which is Jekyll? You see, I only know your professional side." + +"You must try to find out for yourself by deduction," he said, "as you +picked out the other passengers. I am going to Grasse," he continued. +"It's the capital of Hohenwald. Do you know it?" + +"Yes," she said; "we were there once for a few days. We went to see +the pictures. I suppose you know that the old Duke, the father of the +present one, ruined himself almost by buying pictures for the Grasse +gallery. We were there at a bad time, though, when the palace was +closed to visitors, and the gallery too. I suppose that is what is +taking you there?" + +"No," Carlton said, shaking his head. "No, it is not the pictures. I +am going to Grasse," he said, gravely, "to see the young woman with +whom I am in love." + +Miss Morris looked up in some surprise, and smiled consciously, with a +natural feminine interest in an affair of love, and one which was a +secret as well. + +"Oh," she said, "I beg your pardon; we--I had not heard of it." + +"No, it is not a thing one could announce exactly," said Carlton; "it +is rather in an embryo state as yet--in fact, I have not met the young +lady so far, but I mean to meet her. That's why I am going abroad." + +Miss Morris looked at him sharply to see if he were smiling, but he +was, on the contrary, gazing sentimentally at the horizon-line, and +puffing meditatively on his pipe. He was apparently in earnest, and +waiting for her to make some comment. + +"How very interesting!" was all she could think to say. + +"Yes, when you know the details, it is,----VERY interesting," he +answered. "She is the Princess Aline of Hohenwald," he explained, +bowing his head as though he were making the two young ladies known to +one another. "She has several other names, six in all, and her age is +twenty-two. That is all I know about her. I saw her picture in an +illustrated paper just before I sailed, and I made up my mind I would +meet her, and here I am. If she is not in Grasse, I intend to follow +her to wherever she may be." He waved his pipe at the ocean before him, +and recited, with mock seriousness: + + "'Across the hills and far away, + Beyond their utmost purple rim, + And deep into the dying day, + The happy Princess followed him.' + + +"Only in this case, you see," said Carlton, "I am following the happy +Princess." + +"No; but seriously, though," said Miss Morris, "what is it you mean? +Are you going to paint her portrait?" + +"I never thought of that," exclaimed Carlton. "I don't know but what +your idea is a good one. Miss Morris, that's a great idea." He shook +his head approvingly. "I did not do wrong to confide in you," he said. +"It was perhaps taking a liberty; but as you have not considered it as +such, I am glad I spoke." + +"But you don't really mean to tell me," exclaimed the girl, facing +about, and nodding her head at him, "that you are going abroad after a +woman whom you have never seen, and because you like a picture of her +in a paper?" + +"I do," said Carlton. "Because I like her picture, and because she is +a Princess." + +"Well, upon my word," said Miss Morris, gazing at him with evident +admiration, "that's what my younger brother would call a distinctly +sporting proposition. Only I don't see," she added, "what her being a +Princess has to do with it." + +"You don't?" laughed Carlton, easily. "That's the best part of +it--that's the plot. The beauty of being in love with a Princess, Miss +Morris," he said, "lies in the fact that you can't marry her; that you +can love her deeply and forever, and nobody will ever come to you and +ask your intentions, or hint that after such a display of affection you +ought to do something. Now, with a girl who is not a Princess, even if +she understands the situation herself, and wouldn't marry you to save +her life, still there is always some one--a father, or a mother, or one +of your friends--who makes it his business to interfere, and talks +about it, and bothers you both. But with a Princess, you see, that is +all eliminated. You can't marry a Princess, because they won't let +you. A Princess has got to marry a real royal chap, and so you are +perfectly ineligible and free to sigh for her, and make pretty speeches +to her, and see her as often as you can, and revel in your devotion and +unrequited affection." + +Miss Morris regarded him doubtfully. She did not wish to prove herself +too credulous. "And you honestly want me, Mr. Carlton, to believe that +you are going abroad just for this?" + +"You see," Carlton answered her, "if you only knew me better you would +have no doubt on the subject at all. It isn't the thing some men would +do, I admit, but it is exactly what any one who knows me would expect +of me. I should describe it, having had acquaintance with the young +man for some time, as being eminently characteristic. And besides, +think what a good story it makes! Every other man who goes abroad this +summer will try to tell about his travels when he gets back to New +York, and, as usual, no one will listen to him. But they will HAVE to +listen to me. 'You've been across since I saw you last. What did you +do?' they'll ask, politely. And then, instead of simply telling them +that I have been in Paris or London, I can say, 'Oh, I've been chasing +around the globe after the Princess Aline of Hohenwald.' That sounds +interesting, doesn't it? When you come to think of it," Carlton +continued, meditatively, "it is not so very remarkable. Men go all the +way to Cuba and Mexico, and even to India, after orchids, after a nasty +flower that grows in an absurd way on the top of a tree. Why shouldn't +a young man go as far as Germany after a beautiful Princess, who walks +on the ground, and who can talk and think and feel? She is much more +worth while than an orchid." + +Miss Morris laughed indulgently. "Well, I didn't know such devotion +existed at this end of the century," she said; "it's quite nice and +encouraging. I hope you will succeed, I am sure. I only wish we were +going to be near enough to see how you get on. I have never been a +confidante when there was a real Princess concerned," she said; "it +makes it so much more amusing. May one ask what your plans are?" + +Carlton doubted if he had any plans as yet. "I have to reach the +ground first," he said, "and after that I must reconnoitre. I may +possibly adopt your idea, and ask to paint her portrait, only I dislike +confusing my social and professional sides. As a matter of fact, +though," he said, after a pause, laughing guiltily, "I have done a +little of that already. I prepared her, as it were, for my coming. I +sent her studies of two pictures I made last winter in Berlin. One of +the Prime Minister, and one of Ludwig, the tragedian at the Court +Theatre. I sent them to her through my London agent, so that she would +think they had come from some one of her English friends, and I told +the dealer not to let any one know who had forwarded them. My idea was +that it might help me, perhaps, if she knew something about me before I +appeared in person. It was a sort of letter of introduction written by +myself." + +"Well, really," expostulated Miss Morris, "you certainly woo in a royal +way. Are you in the habit of giving away your pictures to any one +whose photograph you happen to like? That seems to me to be giving new +lamps for old to a degree. I must see if I haven't some of my sister's +photographs in my trunk. She is considered very beautiful." + +"Well, you wait until you see this particular portrait, and--you will +understand it better," said Carlton. + +The steamer reached Southampton early in the afternoon, and Carlton +secured a special compartment on the express to London for Mrs. Downs +and her niece and himself, with one adjoining for their maid and Nolan. +It was a beautiful day, and Carlton sat with his eyes fixed upon the +passing fields and villages, exclaiming with pleasure from time to time +at the white roads and the feathery trees and hedges, and the red roofs +of the inns and square towers of the village churches. + +"Hedges are better than barbed-wire fences, aren't they?" he said. +"You see that girl picking wild flowers from one of them? She looks +just as though she were posing for a picture for an illustrated paper. +She couldn't pick flowers from a barbed-wire fence, could she? And +there would probably be a tramp along the road somewhere to frighten +her; and see--the chap in knickerbockers farther down the road leaning +on the stile. I am sure he is waiting for her; and here comes a +coach," he ran on. "Don't the red wheels look well against the hedges? +It's a pretty little country, England, isn't it?--like a private park +or a model village. I am glad to get back to it--I am glad to see the +three-and-six signs with the little slanting dash between the shillings +and pennies. Yes, even the steam-rollers and the man with the red flag +in front are welcome." + +"I suppose," said Mrs. Downs, "it's because one has been so long on the +ocean that the ride to London seems so interesting. It always pays me +for the entire trip. Yes," she said, with a sigh, "in spite of the +patent-medicine signs they have taken to putting up all along the road. +It seems a pity they should adopt our bad habits instead of our good +ones." + +"They are a bit slow at adopting anything," commented Carlton. "Did +you know, Mrs. Downs, that electric lights are still as scarce in +London as they are in Timbuctoo? Why, I saw an electric-light plant +put up in a Western town in three days once; there were over a hundred +burners in one saloon, and the engineer who put them up told me in +confidence that--" + +What the chief engineer told him in confidence was never disclosed, for +at that moment Miss Morris interrupted him with a sudden sharp +exclamation. + +"Oh, Mr. Carlton," she exclaimed, breathlessly, "listen to this!" She +had been reading one of the dozen papers which Carlton had purchased at +the station, and was now shaking one of them at him, with her eyes +fixed on the open page. + +"My dear Edith," remonstrated her aunt, "Mr. Carlton was telling us--" + +"Yes, I know," exclaimed Miss Morris, laughing, "but this interests him +much more than electric lights. Who do you think is in London?" she +cried, raising her eyes to his, and pausing for proper dramatic effect. +"The Princess Aline of Hohenwald!" + +"No?" shouted Carlton. + +"Yes," Miss Morris answered, mocking his tone. "Listen. 'The Queen's +Drawing-room'--em--e--m--'on her right was the Princess of +Wales'--em--m. Oh, I can't find it--no--yes, here it is. 'Next to her +stood the Princess Aline of Hohenwald. She wore a dress of white silk, +with train of silver brocade trimmed with fur. Ornaments--emeralds and +diamonds; orders--Victoria and Albert, jubilee Commemoration Medal, +Coburg and Gotha, and Hohenwald and Grasse.'" + +"By Jove!" cried Carlton, excitedly. "I say, is that really there? +Let me see it, please, for myself." + +Miss Morris handed him the paper, with her finger on the paragraph, and +picking up another, began a search down its columns. + +"You are right," exclaimed Carlton, solemnly; "it's she, sure enough. +And here I've been within two hours of her and didn't know it?" + +Miss Morris gave another triumphant cry, as though she had discovered a +vein of gold. + +"Yes, and here she is again," she said, "in the Gentlewoman: 'The +Queen's dress was of black, as usual, but relieved by a few violet +ribbons in the bonnet; and Princess Beatrice, who sat by her mother's +side, showed but little trace of the anxiety caused by Princess Ena's +accident. Princess Aline, on the front seat, in a light brown jacket +and a becoming bonnet, gave the necessary touch to a picture which +Londoners would be glad to look upon more often.'" + +Carlton sat staring forward, with his hands on his knees, and with his +eyes open wide from excitement. He presented so unusual an appearance +of bewilderment and delight that Mrs. Downs looked at him and at her +niece for some explanation. "The young lady seems to interest you," +said she, tentatively. + +"She is the most charming creature in the world, Mrs. Downs," cried +Carlton, "and I was going all the way to Grasse to see her, and now it +turns out that she is here in England, within a few miles of us." He +turned and waved his hands at the passing landscape. "Every minute +brings us nearer together." + +"And you didn't feel it in the air!" mocked Miss Morris, laughing. +"You are a pretty poor sort of a man to let a girl tell you where to +find the woman you love." + +Carlton did not answer, but stared at her very seriously and frowned +intently. "Now I have got to begin all over again and readjust +things," he said. "We might have guessed she would be in London, on +account of this royal wedding. It is a great pity it isn't later in +the season, when there would be more things going on and more chances +of meeting her. Now they will all be interested in themselves, and, +being extremely exclusive, no one who isn't a cousin to the bridegroom +or an Emperor would have any chance at all. Still, I can see her! I +can look at her, and that's something." + +"It is better than a photograph, anyway," said Miss Morris. + +"They will be either at Buckingham Palace or at Windsor, or they will +stop at Brown's," said Carlton. "All royalties go to Brown's. I don't +know why, unless it is because it is so expensive; or maybe it is +expensive because royalties go there; but, in any event, if they are +not at the palace, that is where they will be, and that is where I +shall have to go too." + +When the train drew up at Victoria Station, Carlton directed Nolan to +take his things to Brown's Hotel, but not to unload them until he had +arrived. Then he drove with the ladies to Cox's, and saw them settled +there. He promised to return at once to dine, and to tell them what he +had discovered in his absence. "You've got to help me in this, Miss +Morris," he said, nervously. "I am beginning to feel that I am not +worthy of her." + +"Oh yes, you are!" she said, laughing; "but don't forget that 'it's not +the lover who comes to woo, but the lover's WAY of wooing,' and that +'faint heart'--and the rest of it." + +"Yes, I know," said Carlton, doubtfully; "but it's a bit sudden, isn't +it?" + +"Oh, I am ashamed of you! You are frightened." + +"No, not frightened, exactly," said the painter. "I think it's just +natural emotion." + +As Carlton turned into Albemarle Street he noticed a red carpet +stretching from the doorway of Brown's Hotel out across the sidewalk to +a carriage, and a bareheaded man bustling about apparently assisting +several gentlemen to get into it. This and another carriage and +Nolan's four-wheeler blocked the way; but without waiting for them to +move up, Carlton leaned out of his hansom and called the bareheaded man +to its side. + +"Is the Duke of Hohenwald stopping at your hotel?" he asked. The +bareheaded man answered that he was. + +"All right, Nolan," cried Carlton. "They can take in the trunks." + +Hearing this, the bareheaded man hastened to help Carlton to alight. +"That was the Duke who just drove off, sir; and those," he said, +pointing to three muffled figures who were stepping into a second +carriage, "are his sisters, the Princesses." + +Carlton stopped midway, with one foot on the step and the other in the +air. + +"The deuce they are!" he exclaimed; "and which is--" he began, eagerly, +and then remembering himself, dropped back on the cushions of the +hansom. + +He broke into the little dining-room at Cox's in so excited a state +that two dignified old gentlemen who were eating there sat open-mouthed +in astonished disapproval. Mrs. Downs and Miss Morris had just come +down stairs. + +"I have seen her!" Carlton cried, ecstatically; "only half an hour in +the town, and I've seen her already!" + +"No, really?" exclaimed Miss Morris. "And how did she look? Is she as +beautiful as you expected?" + +"Well, I can't tell yet," Carlton answered. + +"There were three of them, and they were all muffled up, and which one +of the three she was I don't know. She wasn't labelled, as in the +picture, but she was there, and I saw her. The woman I love was one of +that three, and I have engaged rooms at the hotel, and this very night +the same roof shelters us both." + + + + +II + + +"The course of true love certainly runs smoothly with you," said Miss +Morris, as they seated themselves at the table. "What is your next +move? What do you mean to do now?" + +"The rest is very simple," said Carlton. "To-morrow morning I will go +to the Row; I will be sure to find some one there who knows all about +them--where they are going, and who they are seeing, and what +engagements they may have. Then it will only be a matter of looking up +some friend in the Household or in one of the embassies who can present +me." + +"Oh," said Miss Morris, in the tone of keenest disappointment, "but +that is such a commonplace ending! You started out so romantically. +Couldn't you manage to meet her in a less conventional way?" + +"I am afraid not," said Carlton. "You see, I want to meet her very +much, and to meet her very soon, and the quickest way of meeting her, +whether it's romantic or not, isn't a bit too quick for me. There will +be romance enough after I am presented, if I have my way." + +But Carlton was not to have his way; for he had overlooked the fact +that it requires as many to make an introduction as a bargain, and he +had left the Duke of Hohenwald out of his considerations. He met many +people he knew in the Row the next morning; they asked him to lunch, +and brought their horses up to the rail, and he patted the horses' +heads, and led the conversation around to the royal wedding, and +through it to the Hohenwalds. He learned that they had attended a +reception at the German Embassy on the previous night, and it was one +of the secretaries of that embassy who informed him of their intended +departure that morning on the eleven o'clock train to Paris. + +"To Paris!" cried Carlton, in consternation. "What! all of them?" + +"Yes, all of them, of course. Why?" asked the young German. But +Carlton was already dodging across the tan-bark to Piccadilly and +waving his stick at a hansom. + +Nolan met him at the door of Brown's Hotel with an anxious countenance. + +"Their Royal Highnesses have gone, sir," he said. "But I've packed +your trunks and sent them to the station. Shall I follow them, sir?" + +"Yes," said Carlton. "Follow the trunks and follow the Hohenwalds. I +will come over on the Club train at four. Meet me at the station, and +tell me to what hotel they have gone. Wait; if I miss you, you can +find me at the Hotel Continental; but if they go straight on through +Paris, you go with them, and telegraph me here and to the Continental. +Telegraph at every station, so I can keep track of you. Have you +enough money?" + +"I have, sir--enough for a long trip, sir." + +"Well, you'll need it," said Carlton, grimly. "This is going to be a +long trip. It is twenty minutes to eleven now; you will have to hurry. +Have you paid my bill here?" + +"I have, sir," said Nolan. + +"Then get off, and don't lose sight of those people again." + +Carlton attended to several matters of business, and then lunched with +Mrs. Downs and her niece. He had grown to like them very much, and was +sorry to lose sight of them, but consoled himself by thinking he would +see them a few days at least in Paris. He judged that he would be +there for some time, as he did not think the Princess Aline and her +sisters would pass through that city without stopping to visit the +shops on the Rue de la Paix. + +"All women are not princesses," he argued, "but all princesses are +women." + +"We will be in Paris on Wednesday," Mrs. Downs told him. "The Orient +Express leaves there twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays, and we +have taken an apartment for next Thursday, and will go right on to +Constantinople." + +"But I thought you said you had to buy a lot of clothes there?" Carlton +expostulated. + +Mrs. Downs said that they would do that on their way home. + +Nolan met Carlton at the station, and told him that he had followed the +Hohenwalds to the Hotel Meurice. "There is the Duke, sir, and the +three Princesses," Nolan said, "and there are two German gentlemen +acting as equerries, and an English captain, a sort of A.D.C. to the +Duke, and two elderly ladies, and eight servants. They travel very +simple, sir, and their people are in undress livery. Brown and red, +sir." + +Carlton pretended not to listen to this. He had begun to doubt but +that Nolan's zeal would lead him into some indiscretion, and would end +disastrously to himself. He spent the evening alone in front of the +Cafe de la Paix, pleasantly occupied in watching the life and movement +of that great meeting of the highways. It did not seem possible that +he had ever been away. It was as though he had picked up a book and +opened it at the page and place at which he had left off reading it a +moment before. There was the same type, the same plot, and the same +characters, who were doing the same characteristic things. Even the +waiter who tipped out his coffee knew him; and he knew, or felt as +though he knew, half of those who passed, or who shared with him the +half of the sidewalk. The women at the next table considered the slim, +good-looking young American with friendly curiosity, and the men with +them discussed him in French, until a well-known Parisian recognized +Carlton in passing, and hailed him joyously in the same language, at +which the women laughed and the men looked sheepishly conscious. + +On the following morning Carlton took up his post in the open court of +the Meurice, with his coffee and the Figaro to excuse his loitering +there. He had not been occupied with these over-long before Nolan +approached him, in some excitement, with the information that their +Royal Highnesses--as he delighted to call them--were at that moment +"coming down the lift." + +Carlton could hear their voices, and wished to step around the corner +and see them; it was for this chance he had been waiting; but he could +not afford to act in so undignified a manner before Nolan, so he merely +crossed his legs nervously, and told the servant to go back to the +rooms. + +"Confound him!" he said; "I wish he would let me conduct my own affairs +in my own way. If I don't stop him, he'll carry the Princess Aline off +by force and send me word where he has hidden her." + +The Hohenwalds had evidently departed for a day's outing, as up to five +o'clock they had not returned; and Carlton, after loitering all the +afternoon, gave up waiting for them, and went out to dine at Laurent's, +in the Champs Elysees. He had finished his dinner, and was leaning +luxuriously forward, with his elbows on the table, and knocking the +cigar ashes into his coffee-cup. He was pleasantly content. The trees +hung heavy with leaves over his head, a fountain played and overflowed +at his elbow, and the lamps of the fiacres passing and repassing on the +Avenue of the Champs Elysees shone like giant fire-flies through the +foliage. The touch of the gravel beneath his feet emphasized the free, +out-of-door charm of the place, and the faces of the others around him +looked more than usually cheerful in the light of the candles +flickering under the clouded shades. His mind had gone back to his +earlier student days in Paris, when life always looked as it did now in +the brief half-hour of satisfaction which followed a cold bath or a +good dinner, and he had forgotten himself and his surroundings. It was +the voices of the people at the table behind him that brought him back +to the present moment. A man was talking; he spoke in English, with an +accent. + +"I should like to go again through the Luxembourg," he said; "but you +need not be bound by what I do." + +"I think it would be pleasanter if we all keep together," said a girl's +voice, quietly. She also spoke in English, and with the same accent. + +The people whose voices had interrupted him were sitting and standing +around a long table, which the waiters had made large enough for their +party by placing three of the smaller ones side by side; they had +finished their dinner, and the women, who sat with their backs towards +Carlton, were pulling on their gloves. + +"Which is it to be, then?" said the gentleman, smiling. "The pictures +or the dressmakers?" + +The girl who had first spoken turned to the one next to her. + +"Which would you rather do, Aline?" she asked. + +Carlton moved so suddenly that the men behind him looked at him +curiously; but he turned, nevertheless, in his chair and faced them, +and in order to excuse his doing so beckoned to one of the waiters. He +was within two feet of the girl who had been called "Aline." She +raised her head to speak, and saw Carlton staring open-eyed at her. +She glanced at him for an instant, as if to assure herself that she did +not know him, and then, turning to her brother, smiled in the same +tolerant, amused way in which she had so often smiled upon Carlton from +the picture. + +"I am afraid I had rather go to the Bon March," she said. + +One of the waiters stepped in between them, and Carlton asked him for +his bill; but when it came he left it lying on the plate, and sat +staring out into the night between the candles, puffing sharply on his +cigar, and recalling to his memory his first sight of the Princess +Aline of Hohenwald. + +That night, as he turned into bed, he gave a comfortable sigh of +content. "I am glad she chose the dressmakers instead of the +pictures," he said. + +Mrs. Downs and Miss Morris arrived in Paris on Wednesday, and expressed +their anxiety to have Carlton lunch with them, and to hear him tell of +the progress of his love-affair. There was not much to tell; the +Hohenwalds had come and gone from the hotel as freely as any other +tourists in Paris, but the very lack of ceremony about their movements +was in itself a difficulty. The manner of acquaintance he could make +in the court of the Hotel Meurice with one of the men over a cup of +coffee or a glass of bock would be as readily discontinued as begun, +and for his purpose it would have been much better if the Hohenwalds +had been living in state with a visitors' book and a chamberlain. + +On Wednesday evening Carlton took the ladies to the opera, where the +Hohenwalds occupied a box immediately opposite them. Carlton pretended +to be surprised at this fact, but Mrs. Downs doubted his sincerity. + +"I saw Nolan talking to their courier to-day," she said, "and I fancy +he asked a few leading questions." + +"Well, he didn't learn much if he did," he said. "The fellow only +talks German." + +"Ah, then he has been asking questions!" said Miss Morris. + +"Well, he does it on his own responsibility," said Carlton, "for I told +him to have nothing to do with servants. He has too much zeal, has +Nolan; I'm afraid of him." + +"If you were only half as interested as he is," said Miss Morris, "you +would have known her long ago." + +"Long ago?" exclaimed Carlton. "I only saw her four days since." + +"She is certainly very beautiful," said Miss Morris, looking across the +auditorium. + +"But she isn't there," said Carlton. + +"That's the eldest sister; the two other sisters went out on the coach +this morning to Versailles, and were too tired to come tonight. At +least, so Nolan says. He seems to have established a friendship for +their English maid, but whether it's on my account or his own I don't +know. I doubt his unselfishness." + +"How disappointing of her!" said Miss Morris. "And after you had +selected a box just across the way, too. It is such a pity to waste it +on us." Carlton smiled, and looked up at her impudently, as though he +meant to say something; but remembering that she was engaged to be +married, changed his mind, and lowered his eyes to his programme. + +"Why didn't you say it?" asked Miss Morris, calmly, turning her glass +to the stage. "Wasn't it pretty?" + +"No," said Carlton--"not pretty enough." + +The ladies left the hotel the next day to take the Orient Express, +which left Paris at six o'clock. They had bidden Carlton goodbye at +four the same afternoon, and as he had come to their rooms for that +purpose, they were in consequence a little surprised to see him at the +station, running wildly along the platform, followed by Nolan and a +porter. He came into their compartment after the train had started, +and shook his head sadly at them from the door. + +"Well, what do you think of this?" he said. "You can't get rid of me, +you see. I'm going with you." + +"Going with us?" asked Mrs. Downs. "How far?" + +Carlton laughed, and, coming inside, dropped onto the cushions with a +sigh. "I don't know," he said, dejectedly. "All the way, I'm afraid. +That is, I mean, I'm very glad I am to have your society for a few days +more; but really I didn't bargain for this." + +"You don't mean to tell me that THEY are on this train?" said Miss +Morris. + +"They are," said Carlton. "They have a car to themselves at the rear. +They only made up their minds to go this morning, and they nearly +succeeded in giving me the slip again; but it seems that their English +maid stopped Nolan in the hall to bid him good-bye, and so he found out +their plans. They are going direct to Constantinople, and then to +Athens. They had meant to stay in Paris two weeks longer, it seems, +but they changed their minds last night. It was a very close shave for +me. I only got back to the hotel in time to hear from the concierge +that Nolan had flown with all of my things, and left word for me to +follow. Just fancy! Suppose I had missed the train, and had had to +chase him clear across the continent of Europe with not even a razor--" + +"I am glad," said Miss Morris, "that Nolan has not taken a fancy to ME. +I doubt if I could resist such impetuosity." + +The Orient Express, in which Carlton and the mistress of his heart and +fancy were speeding towards the horizon's utmost purple rim, was made +up of six cars, one dining-car with a smoking-apartment attached, and +five sleeping-cars, including the one reserved for the Duke of +Hohenwald and his suite. These cars were lightly built, and rocked in +consequence, and the dust raised by the rapid movement of the train +swept through cracks and open windows, and sprinkled the passengers +with a fine and irritating coating of soot and earth. There was one +servant to the entire twenty-two passengers. He spoke eight languages, +and never slept; but as his services were in demand by several people +in as many different cars at the same moment he satisfied no one, and +the complaint-box in the smoking-car was stuffed full to the slot in +consequence before they had crossed the borders of France. + +Carlton and Miss Morris went out upon one of the platforms and sat down +upon a tool-box. "It's isn't as comfortable here as in an +observation-car at home," said Carlton, "but it's just as noisy." + +He pointed out to her from time to time the peasants gathering twigs, +and the blue-bloused gendarmes guarding the woods and the fences +skirting them. "Nothing is allowed to go to waste in this country," he +said. "It looks as though they went over it once a month with a +lawn-mower and a pruning-knife. I believe they number the trees as we +number the houses." + +"And did you notice the great fortifications covered with grass?" she +said. "We have passed such a lot of them." + +Carlton nodded. + +"And did you notice that they all faced only one way?" + +Carlton laughed, and nodded again. "Towards Germany," he said. + +By the next day they had left the tall poplars and white roads behind +them, and were crossing the land of low shiny black helmets and brass +spikes. They had come into a country of low mountains and black +forests, with old fortified castles topping the hills, and with +red-roofed villages scattered around the base. + +"How very military it all is!" Mrs. Downs said. "Even the men at the +lonely little stations in the forests wear uniforms; and do you notice +how each of them rolls up his red flag and holds it like a sword, and +salutes the train as it passes?" + +They spent the hour during which the train shifted from one station in +Vienna to the other driving about in an open carriage, and stopped for +a few moments in front of a cafe to drink beer and to feel solid earth +under them again, returning to the train with a feeling which was +almost that of getting back to their own rooms. Then they came to +great steppes covered with long thick grass, and flooded in places with +little lakes of broken ice; great horned cattle stood knee-deep in this +grass, and at the villages and way-stations were people wearing +sheepskin jackets and waistcoats covered with silver buttons. In one +place there was a wedding procession waiting for the train to pass, +with the friends of the bride and groom in their best clothes, the +women with silver breastplates, and boots to their knees. It seemed +hardly possible that only two days before they had seen another wedding +party in the Champs Elysees, where the men wore evening dress, and the +women were bareheaded and with long trains. In forty-eight hours they +had passed through republics, principalities, empires, and kingdoms, +and from spring to winter. It was like walking rapidly over a painted +panorama of Europe. + +On the second evening Carlton went off into the smoking-car alone. The +Duke of Hohenwald and two of his friends had finished a late supper, +and were seated in the apartment adjoining it. The Duke was a young +man with a heavy beard and eyeglasses. He was looking over an +illustrated catalogue of the Salon, and as Carlton dropped on the sofa +opposite the Duke raised his head and looked at him curiously, and then +turned over several pages of the catalogue and studied one of them, and +then back at Carlton, as though he were comparing him with something on +the page before him. Carlton was looking out at the night, but he +could follow what was going forward, as it was reflected in the glass +of the car window. He saw the Duke hand the catalogue to one of the +equerries, who raised his eyebrows and nodded his head in assent. +Carlton wondered what this might mean, until he remembered that there +was a portrait of himself by a French artist in the Salon, and +concluded it had been reproduced in the catalogue. He could think of +nothing else which would explain the interest the two men showed in +him. On the morning following he sent Nolan out to purchase a +catalogue at the first station at which they stopped, and found that +his guess was a correct one. A portrait of himself had been reproduced +in black and white, with his name below it. + +"Well, they know who I am now," he said to Miss Morris, "even if they +don't know me. That honor is still in store for them." + +"I wish they did not lock themselves up so tightly," said Miss Morris. +"I want to see her very much. Cannot we walk up and down the platform +at the next station? She may be at the window." + +"Of course," said Carlton. "You could have seen her at Buda-Pesth if +you had spoken of it. She was walking up and down then. The next time +the train stops we will prowl up and down and feast our eyes upon her." + +But Miss Morris had her wish gratified without that exertion. The +Hohenwalds were served in the dining-car after the other passengers had +finished, and were in consequence only to be seen when they passed by +the doors of the other compartments. But this same morning, after +luncheon, the three Princesses, instead of returning to their own car, +seated themselves in the compartment adjoining the dining-car, while +the men of their party lit their cigars and sat in a circle around them. + +"I was wondering how long they could stand three men smoking in one of +the boxes they call cars," said Mrs. Downs. She was seated between +Miss Morris and Carlton, directly opposite the Hohenwalds, and so near +them that she had to speak in a whisper. To avoid doing this Miss +Morris asked Carlton for a pencil, and scribbled with it in the novel +she held on her lap. Then she passed them both back to him, and said, +aloud: "Have you read this? It has such a pretty dedication." The +dedication read, "Which is Aline?" And Carlton, taking the pencil in +his turn, made a rapid sketch of her on the fly-leaf, and wrote beneath +it: "This is she. Do you wonder I travelled four thousand miles to +see her?" + +Miss Morris took the book again, and glanced at the sketch, and then at +the three Princesses, and nodded her head. "It is very beautiful," she +said, gravely, looking out at the passing landscape. + +"Well, not beautiful exactly," answered Carlton, surveying the hills +critically, "but certainly very attractive. It is worth travelling a +long way to see, and I should think one would grow very fond of it." + +Miss Morris tore the fly-leaf out of the book, and slipped it between +the pages. "May I keep it?" she said. Carlton nodded. "And +will you sign it?" she asked, smiling. Carlton shrugged his shoulders, +and laughed. "If you wish it," he answered. + +The Princess wore a gray cheviot travelling dress, as did her sisters, +and a gray Alpine hat. She was leaning back, talking to the English +captain who accompanied them, and laughing. Carlton thought he had +never seen a woman who appealed so strongly to every taste of which he +was possessed. She seemed so sure of herself, so alert, and yet so +gracious, so easily entertained, and yet, when she turned her eyes +towards the strange, dismal landscape, so seriously intent upon its sad +beauty. The English captain dropped his head, and with the pretence of +pulling at his mustache, covered his mouth as he spoke to her. When he +had finished he gazed consciously at the roof of the car, and she kept +her eyes fixed steadily at the object towards which they had turned +when he had ceased speaking, and then, after a decent pause, turned her +eyes, as Carlton knew she would, towards him. + +"He was telling her who I am," he thought, "and about the picture in +the catalogue." + +In a few moments she turned to her sister and spoke to her, pointing +out at something in the scenery, and the same pantomime was repeated, +and again with the third sister. + +"Did you see those girls talking about you, Mr. Carlton?" Miss Morris +asked, after they had left the car. + +Carlton said it looked as though they were. + +"Of course they were," said Miss Morris. + +"That Englishman told the Princess Aline something about you, and then +she told her sister, and she told the eldest one. It would be nice if +they inherit their father's interest in painting, wouldn't it?" + +"I would rather have it degenerate into an interest in painters +myself," said Carlton. + +Miss Morris discovered, after she had returned to her own car, that she +had left the novel where she had been sitting, and Carlton sent Nolan +back for it. It had slipped to the floor, and the fly-leaf upon which +Carlton had sketched the Princess Aline was lying face down beside it. +Nolan picked up the leaf, and saw the picture, and read the inscription +below: "This is she. Do you wonder I travelled four thousand miles to +see her?" + +He handed the book to Miss Morris, and was backing out of the +compartment, when she stopped him. + +"There was a loose page in this, Nolan," she said. "It's gone; did you +see it?" + +"A loose page, miss?" said Nolan, with some concern. "Oh, yes, miss; I +was going to tell you; there was a scrap of paper blew away when I was +passing between the carriages. Was it something you wanted, miss?" + +"Something I wanted!" exclaimed Miss Morris, in dismay. + +Carlton laughed easily. "It is just as well I didn't sign it, after +all," he said. "I don't want to proclaim my devotion to any Hungarian +gypsy who happens to read English." + +"You must draw me another, as a souvenir," Miss Morris said. + +Nolan continued on through the length of the car until he had reached +the one occupied by the Hohenwalds, where he waited on the platform +until the English maidservant saw him and came to the door of the +carriage. + +"What hotel are your people going to stop at in Constantinople?" Nolan +asked. + +"The Grande-Bretagne, I think," she answered. + +"That's right," said Nolan, approvingly. "That's the one we are going +to. I thought I would come and tell you about it. And, by-the-way," +he said, "here's a picture somebody's made of your Princess Aline. She +dropped it, and I picked it up. You had better give it back to her. +Well," he added, politely, "I'm glad you are coming to our hotel in +Constantinople; it's pleasant having some one to talk to who can speak +your own tongue." + +The girl returned to the car, and left Nolan alone upon the platform. +He exhaled a long breath of suppressed excitement, and then gazed +around nervously upon the empty landscape. + +"I fancy that's going to hurry things up a bit," he murmured, with an +anxious smile; "he'd never get along at all if it wasn't for me." + +For reasons possibly best understood by the German ambassador, the +state of the Hohenwalds at Constantinople differed greatly from that +which had obtained at the French capital. They no longer came and went +as they wished, or wandered through the show-places of the city like +ordinary tourists. There was, on the contrary, not only a change in +their manner towards others, but there was an insistence on their part +of a difference in the attitude of others towards themselves. This +showed itself in the reserving of the half of the hotel for their use, +and in the haughty bearing of the equerries, who appeared unexpectedly +in magnificent uniforms. The visitors' book was covered with the +autographs of all of the important people in the Turkish capital, and +the Sultan's carriages stood constantly before the door of the hotel, +awaiting their pleasure, until they became as familiar a sight as the +street dogs, or as cabs in a hansom-cab rank. + +And in following out the programme which had been laid down for her, +the Princess Aline became even less accessible to Carlton than before, +and he grew desperate and despondent. + +"If the worst comes," he said to Miss Morris, "I shall tell Nolan to +give an alarm of fire some night, and then I will run in and rescue her +before they find out there is no fire. Or he might frighten the horses +some day, and give me a chance to stop them. We might even wait until +we reach Greece, and have her carried off by brigands, who would only +give her up to me." + +"There are no more brigands in Greece," said Miss Morris; "and besides, +why do you suppose they would only give her up to you?" + +"Because they would be imitation brigands," said Carlton, "and would be +paid to give her up to no one else." + +"Oh, you plan very well," scoffed Miss Morris, "but you don't DO +anything." + +Carlton was saved the necessity of doing anything that same morning, +when the English captain in attendance on the Duke sent his card to +Carlton's room. He came, he explained, to present the Prince's +compliments, and would it be convenient for Mr. Carlton to meet the +Duke that afternoon? Mr. Carlton suppressed an unseemly desire to +shout, and said, after a moment's consideration, that it would. He +then took the English captain down stairs to the smoking-room, and +rewarded him for his agreeable message. + +The Duke received Carlton in the afternoon, and greeted him most +cordially, and with as much ease of manner as it is possible for a man +to possess who has never enjoyed the benefits of meeting other men on +an equal footing. He expressed his pleasure in knowing an artist with +whose work he was so familiar, and congratulated himself on the happy +accident which had brought them both to the same hotel. + +"I have more than a natural interest in meeting you," said the Prince, +"and for a reason which you may or may not know. I thought possibly +you could help me somewhat. I have within the past few days come into +the possession of two of your paintings; they are studies, rather, but +to me they are even more desirable than the finished work; and I am not +correct in saying that they have come to me exactly, but to my sister, +the Princess Aline." + +Carlton could not withhold a certain start of surprise. He had not +expected that his gift would so soon have arrived, but his face showed +only polite attention. + +"The studies were delivered to us in London," continued the Duke. +"They are of Ludwig the tragedian, and of the German Prime Minister, +two most valuable works, and especially interesting to us. They came +without any note or message which would inform us who had sent them, +and when my people made inquiries, the dealer refused to tell them from +whom they had come. He had been ordered to forward them to Grasse, +but, on learning of our presence in London, sent them direct to our +hotel there. Of course it is embarrassing to have so valuable a +present from an anonymous friend, especially so for my sister, to whom +they were addressed, and I thought that, besides the pleasure of +meeting one of whose genius I am so warm an admirer, I might also learn +something which would enable me to discover who our friend may be." He +paused, but as Carlton said nothing, continued: "As it is now, I do +not feel that I can accept the pictures; and yet I know no one to whom +they can be returned, unless I send them to the dealer." + +"It sounds very mysterious," said Carlton smiling; "and I am afraid I +cannot help you. What work I did in Germany was sold in Berlin before +I left, and in a year may have changed hands several times. The +studies of which you speak are unimportant, and merely studies, and +could pass from hand to hand without much record having been kept of +them; but personally I am not able to give you any information which +would assist you in tracing them." + +"Yes," said the Duke. "Well, then, I shall keep them until I can learn +more; and if we can learn nothing, I shall return them to the dealer." + +Carlton met Miss Morris that afternoon in a state of great excitement. +"It's come!" he cried--"it's come! I am to meet her this week. I have +met her brother, and he has asked me to dine with them on Thursday +night; that's the day before they leave for Athens; and he particularly +mentioned that his sisters would be at the dinner, and that it would be +a pleasure to present me. It seems that the eldest paints, and all of +them love art for art's sake, as their father taught them to do; and, +for all we know, he may make me court painter, and I shall spend the +rest of my life at Grasse painting portraits of the Princess Aline, at +the age of twenty-two, and at all future ages. And if he does give me +a commission to paint her, I can tell you now in confidence that that +picture will require more sittings than any other picture ever painted +by man. Her hair will have turned white by the time it is finished, +and the gown she started to pose in will have become forty years behind +the fashion!" + +On the morning following, Carlton and Mrs. Downs and her niece, with +all the tourists in Constantinople, were placed in open carriages by +their dragomans, and driven in a long procession to the Seraglio to see +the Sultan's treasures. Those of them who had waited two weeks for +this chance looked aggrieved at the more fortunate who had come at the +eleventh hour on the last night's steamer, and seemed to think these +latter had attained the privilege without sufficient effort. The +ministers of the different legations--as is the harmless custom of such +gentlemen--had impressed every one for whom they had obtained +permission to see the treasures with the great importance of the +service rendered, and had succeeded in making every one feel either +especially honored or especially uncomfortable at having given them so +much trouble. This sense of obligation, and the fact that the +dragomans had assured the tourists that they were for the time being +the guests of the Sultan, awed and depressed most of the visitors to +such an extent that their manner in the long procession of carriages +suggested a funeral cortege, with the Hohenwalds in front, escorted by +Beys and Pashas, as chief mourners. The procession halted at the +palace, and the guests of the Sultan were received by numerous effendis +in single-button frock-coats and freshly ironed fezzes, who served them +with glasses of water, and a huge bowl of some sweet stuff, of which +every one was supposed to take a spoonful. There was at first a +general fear among the Cook's tourists that there would not be enough +of this to go round, which was succeeded by a greater anxiety lest they +should be served twice. Some of the tourists put the sweet stuff in +their mouths direct and licked the spoon, and others dropped it off the +spoon into the glass of water, and stirred it about and sipped at it, +and no one knew who had done the right thing, not even those who +happened to have done it. Carlton and Miss Morris went out on to the +terrace while this ceremony was going forward, and looked out over the +great panorama of waters, with the Sea of Marmora on one side, the +Golden Horn on the other, and the Bosporus at their feet. The sun was +shining mildly, and the waters were stirred by great and little +vessels; before them on the opposite bank rose the dark green cypresses +which marked the grim cemetery of England's dead, and behind them were +the great turtle-backed mosques and pencil-like minarets of the two +cities, and close at hand the mosaic walls and beautiful gardens of +Constantine. + +"Your friends the Hohenwalds don't seem to know you this morning," she +said. + +"Oh yes; he spoke to me as we left the hotel," Carlton answered. "But +they are on parade at present. There are a lot of their countrymen +among the tourists." + +"I feel rather sorry for them," Miss Morris said, looking at the group +with an amused smile. "Etiquette cuts them off from so much innocent +amusement. Now, you are a gentleman, and the Duke presumably is, and +why should you not go over and say, 'Your Highness, I wish you would +present me to your sister, whom I am to meet at dinner to-morrow night. +I admire her very much,' and then you could point out the historical +features to her, and show her where they have finished off a blue and +green tiled wall with a rusty tin roof, and make pretty speeches to +her. It wouldn't hurt her, and it would do you a lot of good. The +simplest way is always the best way, it seems to me." + +"Oh yes, of course," said Carlton. "Suppose he came over here and +said: 'Carlton, I wish you would present me to your young American +friend. I admire her very much,' I would probably say: 'Do you? +Well, you will have to wait until she expresses some desire to meet +you.' No; etiquette is all right in itself, only some people don't +know its laws, and that is the one instance to my mind where ignorance +of the law is no excuse." + +Carlton left Miss Morris talking with the Secretary of the American +Legation, and went to look for Mrs. Downs. When he returned he found +that the young Secretary had apparently asked and obtained permission +to present the Duke's equerries and some of his diplomatic confreres, +who were standing now about her in an attentive semicircle, and +pointing out the different palaces and points of interest. Carlton was +somewhat disturbed at the sight, and reproached himself with not having +presented any one to her before. He was sure now that she must have +had a dull time of it; but he wished, nevertheless, that if she was to +meet other men, the Secretary had allowed him to act as master of +ceremonies. + +"I suppose you know," that gentleman was saying as Carlton came up, +"that when you pass by Abydos, on the way to Athens, you will see where +Leander swam the Hellespont to meet Hero. That little white +light-house is called Leander in honor of him. It makes rather an +interesting contrast--does it not?--to think of that chap swimming +along in the dark, and then to find that his monument to-day is a +lighthouse, with revolving lamps and electric appliances, and with +ocean tramps and bridges and men-of-war around it. We have improved in +our mechanism since then," he said, with an air, "but I am afraid the +men of to-day don't do that sort of thing for the women of to-day." + +"Then it is the men who have deteriorated," said one of the equerries, +bowing to Miss Morris; "it is certainly not the women." + +The two Americans looked at Miss Morris to see how she received this, +but she smiled good-naturedly. + +"I know a man who did more than that for a woman," said Carlton, +innocently. "He crossed an ocean and several countries to meet her, +and he hasn't met her yet." + +Miss Morris looked at him and laughed, in the safety that no one +understood him but herself. + +"But he ran no danger," she answered. + +"He didn't, didn't he?" said Carlton, looking at her closely and +laughing. "I think he was in very great danger all the time." + +"Shocking!" said Miss Morris, reprovingly; "and in her very presence, +too." She knitted her brows and frowned at him. "I really believe if +you were in prison you would make pretty speeches to the jailer's +daughter." + +"Yes," said Carlton, boldly, "or even to a woman who was a prisoner +herself." + +"I don't know what you mean," she said, turning away from him to the +others. "How far was it that Leander swam?" she asked. + +The English captain pointed out two spots on either bank, and said that +the shores of Abydos were a little over that distance apart. + +"As far as that?" said Miss Morris. "How much he must have cared for +her!" She turned to Carlton for an answer. + +"I beg your pardon," he said. He was measuring the distance between +the two points with his eyes. + +"I said how much he must have cared for her! You wouldn't swim that +far for a girl." + +"For a girl!" laughed Carlton, quickly. "I was just thinking I would +do it for fifty dollars." + +The English captain gave a hasty glance at the distance he had pointed +out, and then turned to Carlton. "I'll take you," he said, seriously. +"I'll bet you twenty pounds you can't do it." There was an easy laugh +at Carlton's expense, but he only shook his head and smiled. + +"Leave him alone, captain," said the American Secretary. "It seems to +me I remember a story of Mr. Carlton's swimming out from Navesink to +meet an ocean liner. It was about three miles, and the ocean was +rather rough, and when they slowed up he asked them if it was raining +in London when they left. They thought he was mad." + +"Is that true, Carlton?" asked the Englishman. + +"Something like it," said the American, "except that I didn't ask them +if it was raining in London. I asked them for a drink, and it was they +who were mad. They thought I was drowning, and slowed up to lower a +boat, and when they found out I was just swimming around they were +naturally angry. + +"Well, I'm glad you didn't bet with me," said the captain, with a +relieved laugh. + +That evening, as the Englishman was leaving the smoking-room, and after +he had bidden Carlton good-night, he turned back and said: "I didn't +like to ask you before those men this morning, but there was something +about your swimming adventure I wanted to know: Did you get that drink?" + +"I did," said Carlton--"in a bottle. They nearly broke my shoulder." + +As Carlton came into the breakfast-room on the morning of the day he +was to meet the Princess Aline at dinner, Miss Morris was there alone, +and he sat down at the same table, opposite to her. She looked at him +critically, and smiled with evident amusement. + +"'To-day,'" she quoted, solemnly, "'the birthday of my life has come.'" + +Carlton poured out his coffee, with a shake of his head, and frowned. +"Oh, you can laugh," he said, "but I didn't sleep at all last night. I +lay awake making speeches to her. I know they are going to put me +between the wrong sisters," he complained, "or next to one of those old +ladies-in-waiting, or whatever they are." + +"How are you going to begin?" said Miss Morris. "Will you tell her you +have followed her from London--or from New York, rather--that you are +young Lochinvar, who came out of the West, and--" + +"I don't know," said Carlton, meditatively, "just how I shall begin; +but I know the curtain is going to rise promptly at eight +o'clock--about the time the soup comes on, I think. I don't see how +she can help but be impressed a little bit. It isn't every day a man +hurries around the globe on account of a girl's photograph; and she IS +beautiful, isn't she?" + +Miss Morris nodded her head encouragingly. + +"Do you know, sometimes," said Carlton, glancing over his shoulders to +see if the waiters were out of hearing, "I fancy she has noticed me. +Once or twice I have turned my head in her direction without meaning +to, and found her looking--well, looking my way, at least. Don't you +think that is a good sign?" he asked, eagerly. + +"It depends on what you call a 'good sign,'" said Miss Morris, +judicially. "It is a sign you're good to look at, if that's what you +want. But you probably know that already, and it's nothing to your +credit. It certainly isn't a sign that a person cares for you because +she prefers to look at your profile rather than at what the dragomans +are trying to show her." + +Carlton drew himself up stiffly. "If you knew your ALICE better," he +said, with severity, "you would understand that it is not polite to +make personal remarks. I ask you, as my confidante, if you think she +has noticed me, and you make fun of my looks! That's not the part of a +confidante." + +"Noticed you!" laughed Miss Morris, scornfully. "How could she help +it? You are always in the way. You are at the door whenever they go +out or come in, and when we are visiting mosques and palaces you are +invariably looking at her instead of the tombs and things, with a +wistful far-away look, as though you saw a vision. The first time you +did it, after you had turned away I saw her feel to see if her hair was +all right. You quite embarrassed her." + +"I didn't--I don't!" stammered Carlton, indignantly. "I wouldn't be so +rude. Oh, I see I'll have to get another confidante; you are most +unsympathetic and unkind." But Miss Morris showed her sympathy later in +the day, when Carlton needed it sorely; for the dinner towards which he +had looked with such pleasurable anticipations and lover-like +misgivings did not take place. The Sultan, so the equerry informed +him, had, with Oriental unexpectedness, invited the Duke to dine that +night at the Palace, and the Duke, much to his expressed regret, had +been forced to accept what was in the nature of a command. He sent +word by his equerry, however, that the dinner to Mr. Carlton was only a +pleasure deferred, and that at Athens, where he understood Carlton was +also going, he hoped to have the pleasure of entertaining him and +making him known to his sisters. + +"He is a selfish young egoist," said Carlton to Mrs. Downs. "As if I +cared whether he was at the dinner or not! Why couldn't he have fixed +it so I might have dined with his sisters alone? We would never have +missed him. I'll never meet her now. I know it; I feel it. Fate is +against me. Now I will have to follow them on to Athens, and something +will turn up there to keep me away from her. You'll see; you'll see. +I wonder where they go from Athens?" + +The Hohenwalds departed the next morning, and as their party had +engaged all the state-rooms in the little Italian steamer, Carlton was +forced to wait over for the next. He was very gloomy over his +disappointment, and Miss Morris did her best to amuse him. She and her +aunt were never idle now, and spent the last few days of their stay in +Constantinople in the bazars or in excursions up and down the river. + +"These are my last days of freedom," Miss Morris said to him once, "and +I mean to make the most of them. After this there will be no more +travelling for me. And I love it so!" she added, wistfully. + +Carlton made no comment, but he felt a certain contemptuous pity for +the young man in America who had required such a sacrifice. "She is +too nice a girl to let him know she is making a sacrifice," he thought, +"or giving up anything for him, but SHE won't forget it." And Carlton +again commended himself for not having asked any woman to make any +sacrifices for him. + +They left Constantinople for Athens one moonlight night, three days +after the Hohenwalds had taken their departure, and as the evening and +the air were warm, they remained upon the upper deck until the boat had +entered the Dardanelles. There were few passengers, and Mrs. Downs +went below early, leaving Miss Morris and Carlton hanging over the +rail, and looking down upon a band of Hungarian gypsies, who were +playing the weird music of their country on the deck beneath them. The +low receding hills lay close on either hand, and ran back so sharply +from the narrow waterway that they seemed to shut in the boat from the +world beyond. The moonlight showed a little mud fort or a thatched +cottage on the bank fantastically, as through a mist, and from time to +time as they sped forward they saw the camp-fire of a sentry, and his +shadow as he passed between it and them, or stopped to cover it with +wood. The night was so still that they could hear the waves in the +steamer's wake washing up over the stones on either shore, and the +muffled beat of the engines echoed back from either side of the valley +through which they passed. There was a great lantern hanging midway +from the mast, and shining down upon the lower deck. It showed a group +of Greeks, Turks, and Armenians, in strange costumes, sleeping, huddled +together in picturesque confusion over the bare boards, or wide-awake +and voluble, smoking and chatting together in happy company. The music +of the tizanes rose in notes of passionate ecstasy and sharp, +unexpected bursts of melody. It ceased and began again, as though the +musicians were feeling their way, and then burst out once more into +shrill defiance. It stirred Carlton with a strange turbulent unrest. +From the banks the night wind brought soft odors of fresh earth and of +heavy foliage. + +"The music of different countries," Carlton said at last, "means many +different things. But it seems to me that the music of Hungary is the +music of love." + +Miss Morris crossed her arms comfortably on the rail, and he heard her +laugh softly. "Oh no, it is not," she said, undisturbed. "It is a +passionate, gusty, heady sort of love, if you like, but it's no more +like the real thing than burgundy is like clear, cold, good water. +It's not the real thing at all." + +"I beg your pardon," said Carlton, meekly. "Of course I don't know +anything about it." He had been waked out of the spell which the night +and the tizanes had placed upon him as completely as though some one had +shaken him sharply by the shoulder. "I bow," he said, "to your superior +knowledge. I know nothing about it." + +"No; you are quite right. I don't believe you do know anything about +it," said the girl, "or you wouldn't have made such a comparison." + +"Do you know, Miss Morris," said Carlton, seriously, "that I believe +I'm not able to care for a woman as other men do--at least as some men +do; it's just lacking in me, and always will be lacking. It's like an +ear for music; if you haven't got it, if it isn't born in you, you'll +never have it. It's not a thing you can cultivate, and I feel that +it's not only a misfortune, but a fault. Now I honestly believe that I +care more for the Princess Aline, whom I have never met, than many +other men could care for her if they knew her well; but what they feel +would last, and I have doubts from past experience that what I feel +would. I don't doubt it while it exists, but it never does exist long, +and so I am afraid it is going to be with me to the end of the +chapter." He paused for a moment, but the girl did not answer. "I am +speaking in earnest now," he added, with a rueful laugh. + +"I see you are," she replied, briefly. She seemed to be considering +his condition as he had described it to her, and he did not interrupt +her. From below them came the notes of the waltz the gypsies played. +It was full of the undercurrent of sadness that a waltz should have, +and filled out what Carlton said as the music from the orchestra in a +theatre heightens the effect without interrupting the words of the +actor on the stage. + +"It is strange," said Miss Morris. "I should have thought you were a +man who would care very much and in just the right way. But I don't +believe really--I'm sorry, but I don't believe you do know what love +means at all." + +"Oh, it isn't as bad as that," said Carlton. "I think I know what it +is, and what it means to other people, but I can't feel it myself. The +best idea I ever got of it--the thing that made it clear to me--was a +line in a play. It seemed to express it better than any of the +love-poems I ever read. It was in Shenandoah." + +Miss Morris laughed. + +"I beg your pardon," said Carlton. + +"I beg yours," she said. "It was only the incongruity that struck me. +It seemed so odd to be quoting Shenandoah here in the Dardanelles, with +these queer people below us and ancient Troy on one hand--it took me by +surprise, that's all. Please go on. What was it impressed you?" + +"Well, the hero in the play," said Carlton, "is an officer in the +Northern army, and he is lying wounded in a house near the Shenandoah +Valley. The girl he loves lives in this house, and is nursing him; but +she doesn't love him, because she sympathizes with the South. At +least she says she doesn't love him. Both armies are forming in the +valley below to begin the battle, and he sees his own regiment +hurrying past to join them, So he gets up and staggers out on the +stage, which is set to show the yard in front of the farm-house, and he +calls for his horse to follow his men. Then the girl runs out and begs +him not to go; and he asks why, what does it matter to her whether he +goes or not? And she says, 'But I cannot let you go; you may be +killed.' And he says again, 'What is that to you?' And she says: 'It +is everything to me. I love you.' And he makes a grab at her with his +wounded arm, and at that instant both armies open fire in the valley +below, and the whole earth and sky seem to open and shut, and the house +rocks. The girl rushes at him and crowds up against his breast, and +cries: 'What is that? Oh, what is that?' and he holds her tight to +him and laughs, and says: 'THAT? That's only a battle--you love me.'" + +Miss Morris looked steadfastly over the side of the boat at the waters +rushing by beneath, smiling to herself. Then she turned her face +towards Carlton, and nodded her head at him. "I think," she said, +dryly, "that you have a fair idea of what it means; a rough +working-plan at least--enough to begin on." + +"I said that I knew what it meant to others. I am complaining that I +cannot feel it myself." + +"That will come in time, no doubt," she said, encouragingly, with the +air of a connoisseur; "and let me tell you," she added, "that it will +be all the better for the woman that you have doubted yourself so long." + +"You think so?" said Carlton, eagerly. + +Miss Morris laughed at his earnestness, and left him to go below to ask +her aunt to join them, but Mrs. Downs preferred to read in the saloon, +and Miss Morris returned alone. She had taken off her Eton jacket and +pulled on a heavy blue football sweater, and over this a reefer. The +jersey clung to her and showed the lines of her figure, and emphasized +the freedom and grace with which she made every movement. She looked, +as she walked at his side with her hands in the pockets of her coat and +with a flat sailor hat on her head, like a tall, handsome boy; but when +they stopped and stood where the light fell full on her hair and the +exquisite coloring of her skin, Carlton thought her face had never +seemed so delicate or fair as it did then, rising from the collar of +the rough jersey, and contrasted with the hat and coat of a man's +attire. They paced the deck for an hour later, until every one else +had left it, and at midnight were still loath to give up the beautiful +night and the charm of their strange surroundings. There were long +silent places in their talk, during which Carlton tramped beside her +with his head half turned, looking at her and noting with an artist's +eye the free light step, the erect carriage, and the unconscious beauty +of her face. The captain of the steamer joined them after midnight, +and falling into step, pointed out to Miss Morris where great cities +had stood, where others lay buried, and where beyond the hills were the +almost inaccessible monasteries of the Greek Church. The moonlight +turned the banks into shadowy substances, in which the ghosts of former +days seemed to make a part; and spurred by the young girl's interest, +the Italian, to entertain her, called up all the legends of mythology +and the stories of Roman explorers and Turkish conquerors. + +"I turn in now," he said, after Miss Morris had left them. "A most +charming young lady. Is it not so?" he added, waving his cigarette in +a gesture which expressed the ineffectiveness of the adjective. + +"Yes, very," said Carlton. "Good-night, sir." + +He turned, and leaned with both elbows on the rail, and looked out at +the misty banks, puffing at his cigar. Then he dropped it hissing into +the water, and, stifling a yawn, looked up and down the length of the +deserted deck. It seemed particularly bare and empty. + +"What a pity she's engaged!" Carlton said. "She loses so much by it." + +They steamed slowly into the harbor of the Piraeus at an early hour the +next morning, with a flotilla of small boats filled with shrieking +porters and hotel-runners at the sides. These men tossed their +painters to the crew, and crawled up them like a boarding crew of +pirates, running wildly about the deck, and laying violent hands on any +piece of baggage they saw unclaimed. The passengers' trunks had been +thrown out in a heap on the deck, and Nolan and Carlton were clambering +over them, looking for their own effects, while Miss Morris stood +below, as far out of the confusion as she could place herself, and +pointed out the different pieces that belonged to her. As she stood +there one of the hotel-runners, a burly, greasy Levantine in pursuit of +a possible victim, shouldered her intentionally and roughly out of the +way. He shoved her so sharply that she lost her balance and fell back +against the rail. Carlton saw what had happened, and made a flying +leap from the top of the pile of trunks, landing beside her, and in +time to seize the escaping offender by the collar. He jerked him back +off his feet. + +"How dare you--" he began. + +But he did not finish. He felt the tips of Miss Morris's fingers laid +upon his shoulder, and her voice saying, in an annoyed tone: "Don't; +please don't." And, to his surprise, his fingers lost their grip on +the man's shirt, his arms dropped at his side, and his blood began to +flow calmly again through his veins. Carlton was aware that he had a +very quick temper. He was always engaging in street rows, as he called +them, with men who he thought had imposed on him or on some one else, +and though he was always ashamed of himself later, his temper had never +been satisfied without a blow or an apology. Women had also touched +him before, and possibly with a greater familiarity; but these had +stirred him, not quieted him; and men who had laid detaining hands on +him had had them beaten down for their pains. But this girl had merely +touched him gently, and he had been made helpless. It was most +perplexing; and while the custom-house officials were passing his +luggage, he found himself rubbing his arm curiously, as though it were +numb, and looking down at it with an amused smile. He did not comment +on the incident, although he smiled at the recollection of his prompt +obedience several times during the day. But as he was stepping into +the cab to drive to Athens, he saw the offending ruffian pass, dripping +with water, and muttering bitter curses. When he saw Carlton he +disappeared instantly in the crowd. Carlton stepped over to where +Nolan sat beside the driver on the box. "Nolan," he said, in a low +voice, "isn't that the fellow who--" + +"Yes, sir," said Nolan, touching his hat gravely. "He was pulling a +valise one way, and the gentleman that owned it, sir, was pulling it +the other, and the gentleman let go sudden, and the Italian went over +backwards off the pier." + +Carlton smiled grimly with secret satisfaction. + +"Nolan," he said, "you're not telling the truth. You did it yourself." +Nolan touched his cap and coughed consciously. There had been no +detaining fingers on Nolan's arm. + + + + +III + + +"You are coming now, Miss Morris," exclaimed Carlton from the front of +the carriage in which they were moving along the sunny road to Athens, +"into a land where one restores his lost illusions. Anybody who wishes +to get back his belief in beautiful things should come here to do it, +just as he would go to a German sanitarium to build up his nerves or +his appetite. You have only to drink in the atmosphere and you are +cured. I know no better antidote than Athens for a siege of cable-cars +and muddy asphalt pavements and a course of Robert Elsmeres and the +Heavenly Twins. Wait until you see the statues of the young athletes +in the Museum," he cried, enthusiastically, "and get a glimpse of the +blue sky back of Mount Hymettus, and the moonlight some evening on the +Acropolis, and you'll be convinced that nothing counts for much in this +world but health and straight limbs, and tall marble pillars, and eyes +trained to see only what is beautiful. Give people a love for beauty +and a respect for health, Miss Morris, and the result is going to be, +what they once had here, the best art and the greatest writers and +satirists and poets. The same audience that applauded Euripides and +Sophocles in the open theatre used to cross the road the same day to +applaud the athletes who ran naked in the Olympian games, and gave them +as great honor. I came here once on a walking tour with a chap who +wasn't making as much of himself as he should have done, and he went +away a changed man, and became a personage in the world, and you would +never guess what it was that did it. He saw a statue of one of the +Greek gods in the Museum which showed certain muscles that he couldn't +find in his own body, and he told me he was going to train down until +they did show; and he stopped drinking and loafing to do it, and took +to exercising and working; and by the time the muscles showed out clear +and strong he was so keen over life that he wanted to make the most of +it, and, as I said, he has done it. That's what a respect for his own +body did for him." + +The carriage stopped at the hotel on one side of the public square of +Athens, with the palace and its gardens blocking one end, and yellow +houses with red roofs, and gay awnings over the cafes, surrounding it. +It was a bright sunny day, and the city was clean and cool and pretty. + +"Breakfast?" exclaimed Miss Morris, in answer to Carlton's inquiry; +"yes, I suppose so, but I won't feel safe until I have my feet on that +rock." She was standing on the steps of the hotel, looking up with +expectant, eager eyes at the great Acropolis above the city. + +"It has been there for a long time now," suggested Carlton, "and I +think you can risk its being there for a half-hour longer." + +"Well," she said, reluctantly, "but I don't wish to lose this chance. +There might be an earthquake, for instance." + + +"We are likely to see THEM this morning," said Carlton, as he left the +hotel with the ladies and drove towards the Acropolis. "Nolan has been +interviewing the English maid, and she tells him they spend the greater +part of their time up there on the rock. They are living very simply +here, as they did in Paris; that is, for the present. On Wednesday the +King gives a dinner and a reception in their honor." + +"When does your dinner come off?" asked Miss Morris. + +"Never," said Carlton, grimly. + +"One of the reasons why I like to come back to Athens so much," said +Mrs. Downs, "is because there are so few other tourists here to spoil +the local color for you, and there are almost as few guides as +tourists, so that you can wander around undisturbed and discover things +for yourself. They don't label every fallen column, and place fences +around the temples. They seem to put you on your good behavior. Then +I always like to go to a place where you are as much of a curiosity to +the people as they are to you. It seems to excuse your staring about +you." + +"A curiosity!" exclaimed Carlton; "I should say so! The last time I +was here I tried to wear a pair of knickerbockers around the city, and +the people stared so that I had to go back to the hotel and change +them. I shouldn't have minded it so much in any other country, but I +thought men who wore Jaeger underclothing and women's petticoats for a +national costume might have excused so slight an eccentricity as +knickerbockers. THEY had no right to throw the first stone." + +The rock upon which the temples of the Acropolis are built is more of a +hill than a rock. It is much steeper upon one side than the other, +with a sheer fall a hundred yards broad; on the opposite side there are +the rooms of the Hospital of Aesculapius and the theatres of Dionysus +and Herodes Atticus. The top of the rock holds the Parthenon and the +other smaller temples, or what yet remains of them, and its surface is +littered with broken marble and stones and pieces of rock. The top is +so closely built over that the few tourists who visit it can imagine +themselves its sole occupants for a half-hour at a time. When Carlton +and his friends arrived, the place appeared quite deserted. They left +the carriage at the base of the rock, and climbed up to the entrance on +foot. + +"Now, before I go on to the Parthenon," said Miss Morris, "I want to +walk around the sides, and see what is there. I shall begin with that +theatre to the left, and I warn you that I mean to take my time about +it. So you people who have been here before can run along by +yourselves, but I mean to enjoy it leisurely. I am safe by myself +here, am I not?" she asked. + +"As safe as though you were in the Metropolitan Museum," said Carlton, +as he and Mrs. Downs followed Miss Morris along the side of the hill +towards the ruined theatre of Herodes, and stood at its top, looking +down into the basin below. From their feet ran a great semicircle of +marble seats, descending tier below tier to a marble pavement, and +facing a great ruined wall of pillars and arches which in the past had +formed the background for the actors. From the height on which they +stood above the city they could see the green country stretching out +for miles on every side and swimming in the warm sunlight, the dark +groves of myrtle on the hills, the silver ribbon of the inland water, +and the dark blue AEgean Sea. The bleating of sheep and the tinkling +of the bells came up to them from the pastures below, and they imagined +they could hear the shepherds piping to their flocks from one little +hill-top to another. + +"The country is not much changed," said Carlton. "And when you stand +where we are now, you can imagine that you see the procession winding +its way over the road to the Eleusinian Mysteries, with the gilded +chariots, and the children carrying garlands, and the priestesses +leading the bulls for the sacrifice." + +"What can we imagine is going on here?" said Miss Morris, pointing with +her parasol to the theatre below. + +"Oh, this is much later," said Carlton. "This was built by the Romans. +They used to act and to hold their public meetings here. This +corresponds to the top row of our gallery, and you can imagine that you +are looking down on the bent backs of hundreds of bald-headed men in +white robes, listening to the speakers strutting about below there." + +"I wonder how much they could hear from this height?" said Mrs. Downs. + +"Well, they had that big wall for a sounding-board, and the air is so +soft here that their voices should have carried easily, and I believe +they wore masks with mouth-pieces, that conveyed the sound like a +fireman's trumpet. If you like, I will run down there and call up to +you, and you can hear how it sounded. I will speak in my natural voice +first, and if that doesn't reach you, wave your parasol, and I will try +it a little louder." + +"Oh, do!" said Miss Morris. "It will be very good of you. I should +like to hear a real speech in the theatre of Herodes," she said, as she +seated herself on the edge of the marble crater. + +"I'll have to speak in English," said Carlton, as he disappeared; "my +Greek isn't good enough to carry that far." + +Mrs. Downs seated herself beside her niece, and Carlton began +scrambling down the side of the amphitheatre. The marble benches were +broken in parts, and where they were perfect were covered with a fine +layer of moss as smooth and soft as green velvet, so that Carlton, when +he was not laboriously feeling for his next foothold with the toe of +his boot, was engaged in picking spring flowers from the beds of moss +and sticking them, for safe-keeping, in his button-hole. He was +several minutes in making the descent, and so busily occupied in doing +it that he did not look up until he had reached the level of the +ground, and jumped lightly from the first row of seats to the stage, +covered with moss, which lay like a heavy rug over the marble pavement. +When he did look up he saw a tableau that made his heart, which was +beating quickly from the exertion of the descent, stand still with +consternation. The Hohenwalds had, in his short absence, descended +from the entrance of the Acropolis, and had stopped on their way to the +road below to look into the cool green and white basin of the theatre. +At the moment Carlton looked up the Duke was standing in front of Mrs. +Downs and Miss Morris, and all of the men had their hats off. Then, in +pantomime, and silhouetted against the blue sky behind them, Carlton +saw the Princesses advance beside their brother, and Mrs. Downs and her +niece courtesied three times, and then the whole party faced about in a +line and looked down at him. The meaning of the tableau was only too +plain. + +"Good heavens!" gasped Carlton. "Everybody's getting introduced to +everybody else, and I've missed the whole thing! If they think I'm +going to stay down here and amuse them, and miss all the fun myself, +they are greatly mistaken." He made a mad rush for the front first row +of seats; but there was a cry of remonstrance from above, and, looking +up, he saw all of the men waving him back. + +"Speech!" cried the young English Captain, applauding loudly, as though +welcoming an actor on his first entrance. "Hats off!" he cried. "Down +in front! Speech!" + +"Confound that ass!" said Carlton, dropping back to the marble pavement +again, and gazing impotently up at the row of figures outlined against +the sky. "I must look like a bear in the bear-pit at the Zoo," he +growled. "They'll be throwing buns to me next." He could see the two +elder sisters talking to Mrs. Downs, who was evidently explaining his +purpose in going down to the stage of the theatre, and he could see the +Princess Aline bending forward, with both hands on her parasol, and +smiling. The captain made a trumpet of his hands, and asked why he +didn't begin. + +"Hello! how are you?" Carlton called back, waving his hat at him in +some embarrassment. "I wonder if I look as much like a fool as I +feel?" he muttered. + +"What did you say? We can't hear you," answered the captain. + +"Louder! louder!" called the equerries. Carlton swore at them under +his breath, and turned and gazed round the hole in which he was penned +in order to make them believe that he had given up the idea of making a +speech, or had ever intended doing so. He tried to think of something +clever to shout back at them, and rejected "Ye men of Athens" as being +too flippant, and "Friends, Countrymen, Romans," as requiring too much +effort. When he looked up again the Hohenwalds were moving on their +way, and as he started once more to scale the side of the theatre the +Duke waved his hand at him in farewell, and gave another hand to his +sisters, who disappeared with him behind the edge of the upper row of +seats. Carlton turned at once and dropped into one of the marble +chairs and bowed his head. When he did reach the top Miss Morris held +out a sympathetic hand to him and shook her head sadly, but he could +see that she was pressing her lips tightly together to keep from +smiling. + +"Oh, it's all very funny for you," he said, refusing her hand. "I +don't believe you are in love with anybody. You don't know what it +means." + +They revisited the rock on the next day and on the day after, and then +left Athens for an inland excursion to stay overnight. Miss Morris +returned from it with the sense of having done her duty once, and by so +doing having earned the right to act as she pleased in the future. +What she best pleased to do was to wander about over the broad top of +the Acropolis, with no serious intent of studying its historical +values, but rather, as she explained it, for the simple satisfaction of +feeling that she was there. She liked to stand on the edge of the low +wall along its top and look out over the picture of sea and plain and +mountains that lay below her. The sun shone brightly, and the wind +swept by them as though they were on the bridge of an ocean steamer, +and there was the added invigorating sense of pleasure that comes to us +when we stand on a great height. Carlton was sitting at her feet, +shielded from the wind by a fallen column, and gazing up at her with +critical approval. + +"You look like a sort of a 'Winged Victory' up there," he said, "with +the wind blowing your skirts about and your hair coming down." + +"I don't remember that the 'Winged Victory' has any hair to blow +about," suggested Miss Morris. + +"I'd like to paint you," continued Carlton, "just as you are standing +now, only I would put you in a Greek dress; and you could stand a Greek +dress better than almost any one I know. I would paint you with your +head up and one hand shielding your eyes, and the other pressed against +your breast. It would be stunning." He spoke enthusiastically, but in +quite an impersonal tone, as though he were discussing the posing of a +model. + +Miss Morris jumped down from the low wall on which she had been +standing, and said, simply, "Of course I should like to have you paint +me very much." + +Mrs. Downs looked up with interest to see if Mr. Carlton was serious. + +"When?" said Carlton, vaguely. "Oh, I don't know. Of course this is +entirely too nice to last, and you will be going home soon, and then +when I do get back to the States you will--you will have other things +to do." + +"Yes," repeated Miss Morris, "I shall have something else to do besides +gazing out at the AEgean Sea." She raised her head and looked across +the rock for a moment with some interest. Her eyes, which had grown +wistful, lighted again with amusement. "Here are your friends," she +said, smiling. + +"No!" exclaimed Carlton, scrambling to his feet. + +"Yes," said Miss Morris. "The Duke has seen us, and is coming over +here." + +When Carlton had gained his feet and turned to look, his friends had +separated in different directions, and were strolling about alone or in +pairs among the great columns of the Parthenon. But the Duke came +directly towards them, and seated himself on a low block of marble in +front of the two ladies. After a word or two about the beauties of the +place, he asked if they would go to the reception which the King gave +to him on the day following. They answered that they should like to +come very much, and the Prince expressed his satisfaction, and said +that he would see that the chamberlain sent them invitations. "And +you, Mr. Carlton, you will come also, I hope. I wish you to be +presented to my sisters. They are only amateurs in art, but they are +great admirers of your work, and they have rebuked me for not having +already presented you. We were all disappointed," he continued, +courteously, "at not having you to dine with us that night in +Constantinople, but now I trust I shall see something of you here. You +must tell us what we are to admire." + +"That is very easy," said Carlton. "Everything." + +"You are quite right," said the Prince, bowing to the ladies as he +moved away. "It is all very beautiful." + +"Well, now you certainly will meet her," said Miss Morris. + +"Oh no, I won't," said Carlton, with resignation. "I have had two +chances and lost them, and I'll miss this one too." + +"Well, there is a chance you shouldn't miss," said Miss Morris, +pointing and nodding her head. "There she is now, and all alone. +She's sketching, isn't she, or taking notes? What is she doing?" + +Carlton looked eagerly in the direction Miss Morris had signified, and +saw the Princess Aline sitting at some distance from them, with a book +on her lap. She glanced up from this now and again to look at +something ahead of her, and was apparently deeply absorbed in her +occupation. + +"There is your opportunity," said Mrs. Downs; "and we are going back to +the hotel. Shall we see you at luncheon?" + +"Yes," said Carlton, "unless I get a position as drawing-master; in +that case I shall be here teaching the three amateurs in art. Do you +think I can do it?" he asked Miss Morris. + +"Decidedly," she answered. "I have found you a most educational young +person." + +They went away together, and Carlton moved cautiously towards the spot +where the Princess was sitting. He made a long and roundabout detour +as he did so, in order to keep himself behind her. He did not mean to +come so near that she would see him, but he took a certain satisfaction +in looking at her when she was alone, though her loneliness was only a +matter of the moment, and though he knew that her people were within a +hundred yards of her. He was in consequence somewhat annoyed and +surprised to see another young man dodging in and out among the pillars +of the Parthenon immediately ahead of him, and to find that this young +man also had his attention centred on the young girl, who sat +unconsciously sketching in the foreground. + +"Now what the devil can he want?" muttered Carlton, his imagination +taking alarm at once. "If it would only prove to be some one who meant +harm to her," he thought--"a brigand, or a beggar, who might be +obligingly insolent, or even a tipsy man, what a chance it would afford +for heroic action!" + +With this hope he moved forward quickly but silently, hoping that the +stranger might prove even to be an anarchist with a grudge against +royalty. And as he advanced he had the satisfaction of seeing the +Princess glance over her shoulder, and, observing the man, rise and +walk quickly away towards the edge of the rock. There she seated +herself with her face towards the city, and with her back firmly set +against her pursuer. + +"He is annoying her!" exclaimed Carlton, delightedly, as he hurried +forward. "It looks as though my chance had come at last." But as he +approached the stranger he saw, to his great disappointment, that he +had nothing more serious to deal with than one of the international +army of amateur photographers, who had been stalking the Princess as a +hunter follows an elk, or as he would have stalked a race-horse or a +prominent politician, or a Lord Mayor's show, everything being fish +that came within the focus of his camera. A helpless statue and an +equally helpless young girl were both good subjects and at his mercy. +He was bending over, with an anxious expression of countenance, and +focussing his camera on the back of the Princess Aline, when Carlton +approached from the rear. As the young man put his finger on the +button of the camera, Carlton jogged his arm with his elbow, and pushed +the enthusiastic tourist to one side. + +"Say," exclaimed that individual, "look where you're going, will you? +You spoiled that plate." + +"I'll spoil your camera if you annoy that young lady any longer," said +Carlton, in a low voice. + +The photographer was rapidly rewinding his roll, and the fire of +pursuit was still in his eye. + +"She's a Princess," he explained, in an excited whisper. + +"Well," said Carlton, "even a Princess is entitled to some +consideration. Besides," he said, in a more amicable tone, "you +haven't a permit to photograph on the Acropolis. You know you +haven't." Carlton was quite sure of this, because there were no such +permits. + +The amateur looked up in some dismay. "I didn't know you had to have +them," he said. "Where can I get one?" + +"The King may give you one," said Carlton. "He lives at the palace. +If they catch you up here without a license, they will confiscate your +camera and lock you up. You had better vanish before they see you." + +"Thank you. I will," said the tourist, anxiously. + +"Now," thought Carlton, smiling pleasantly, "when he goes to the palace +with that box and asks for a permit, they'll think he is either a +dynamiter or a crank, and before they are through with him his interest +in photography will have sustained a severe shock." + +As Carlton turned from watching the rapid flight of the photographer, +he observed that the Princess had remarked it also, as she had no doubt +been a witness of what had passed, even if she had not overheard all +that had been said. She rose from her enforced position of refuge with +a look of relief, and came directly towards Carlton along the rough +path that led through the debris on the top of the Acropolis. Carlton +had thought, as he watched her sitting on the wall, with her chin +resting on her hand, that she would make a beautiful companion picture +to the one he had wished to paint of Miss Morris--the one girl standing +upright, looking fearlessly out to sea, on the top of the low wall, +with the wind blowing her skirts about her, and her hair tumbled in the +breeze, and the other seated, bending intently forward, as though +watching for the return of a long-delayed vessel; a beautifully sad +face, fine and delicate and noble, the face of a girl on the figure of +a woman. And when she rose he made no effort to move away, or, indeed, +to pretend not to have seen her, but stood looking at her as though he +had the right to do so, and as though she must know he had that right. +As she came towards him the Princess Aline did not stop, nor even +shorten her steps; but as she passed opposite to him she bowed her +thanks with a sweet impersonal smile and a dropping of the eyes, and +continued steadily on her way. + +Carlton stood for some short time looking after her, with his hat still +at his side. She seemed farther from him at that moment than she had +ever been before, although she had for the first time recognized him. +But he knew that it was only as a human being that she had recognized +him. He put on his hat, and sat down on a rock with his elbows on his +knees, and filled his pipe. + +"If that had been any other girl," he thought, "I would have gone up to +her and said, 'Was that man annoying you?' and she would have said, +'Yes; thank you,' or something; and I would have walked along with her +until we had come up to her friends, and she would have told them I had +been of some slight service to her, and they would have introduced us, +and all would have gone well. But because she is a Princess she cannot +be approached in that way. At least she does not think so, and I have +to act as she has been told I should act, and not as I think I should. +After all, she is only a very beautiful girl, and she must be very +tired of her cousins and grandmothers, and of not being allowed to see +any one else. These royalties make a very picturesque show for the +rest of us, but indeed it seems rather hard on them. A hundred years +from now there will be no more kings and queens, and the writers of +that day will envy us, just as the writers of this day envy the men who +wrote of chivalry and tournaments, and they will have to choose their +heroes from bank presidents, and their heroines from lady lawyers and +girl politicians and type-writers. What a stupid world it will be +then!" + +The next day brought the reception to the Hohenwalds; and Carlton, +entering the reading-room of the hotel on the same afternoon, found +Miss Morris and her aunt there together taking tea. They both looked +at him with expressions of such genuine commiseration that he stopped +just as he was going to seat himself and eyed them defiantly. + +"Don't tell me," he exclaimed, "that this has fallen through too!" + +Miss Morris nodded her head silently. + +Carlton dropped into the chair beside them, and folded his arms with a +frown of grim resignation. "What is it?" he asked. "Have they +postponed the reception?" + +"No," Miss Morris said; "but the Princess Aline will not be there." + +"Of course not," said Carlton, calmly, "of course not. May I ask why? +I knew that she wouldn't be there, but I may possibly be allowed to +express some curiosity." + +"She turned her ankle on one of the loose stones on the Acropolis this +afternoon," said Miss Morris, "and sprained it so badly that they had +to carry her--" + +"Who carried her?" Carlton demanded, fiercely. + +"Some of her servants." + +"Of course, of course!" cried Carlton. "That's the way it always will +be. I was there the whole afternoon, and I didn't see her. I wasn't +there to help her. It's Fate, that's what it is--Fate! There's no use +in my trying to fight against Fate. Still," he added, anxiously, with +a sudden access of hope, "she may be well by this evening." + +"I hardly think she will," said Miss Morris, "but we will trust so." + +The King's palace and gardens stretch along one end of the public park, +and are but just across the street from the hotel where the Hohenwalds +and the Americans were staying. As the hotel was the first building on +the left of the square, Carlton could see from his windows the +illuminations, and the guards of honor, and the carriages arriving and +departing, and the citizens of Athens crowding the parks and peering +through the iron rails into the King's garden. It was a warm night, +and lighted grandly by a full moon that showed the Acropolis in +silhouette against the sky, and gave a strangely theatrical look to the +yellow house fronts and red roofs of the town. Every window in the +broad front of the palace was illuminated, and through the open doors +came the sound of music, and one without could see rows of tall +servants in the King's blue and white livery, and the men of his guard +in their white petticoats and black and white jackets and red caps. +Carlton pulled a light coat over his evening dress, and, with an +agitation he could hardly explain, walked across the street and entered +the palace. The line of royalties had broken by the time he reached +the ballroom, and the not over-severe etiquette of the Greek court left +him free, after a bow to those who still waited to receive it, to move +about as he pleased. His most earnest desire was to learn whether or +not the Princess Aline was present, and with that end he clutched the +English adjutant as that gentleman was hurrying past him, and asked +eagerly if the Princess had recovered from her accident. + +"No," said the officer; "she's able to walk about, but not to stand, +and sit out a dinner, and dance, and all this sort of thing. Too bad, +wasn't it?" + +"Yes," said Carlton, "very bad." He released his hand from the other's +arm, and dropped back among the men grouped about the doorway. His +disappointment was very keen. Indeed, he had not known how much this +meeting with the Princess had meant to him until he experienced this +disappointment, which was succeeded by a wish to find Miss Morris, and +have her sympathize and laugh with him. He became conscious, as he +searched with growing impatience the faces of those passing and +repassing before him, of how much the habit of going to Miss Morris for +sympathy in his unlucky love-affair had grown of late upon him. He +wondered what he would have done in his travels without her, and +whether he should have had the interest to carry on his pursuit had she +not been there to urge him on, and to mock at him when he grew +fainthearted. + +But when he finally did discover her he stood quite still, and for an +instant doubted if it were she. The girl he saw seemed to be a more +beautiful sister of the Miss Morris he knew--a taller, fairer, and more +radiant personage; and he feared that it was not she, until he +remembered that this was the first time he had ever seen her with her +hair dressed high upon her head, and in the more distinguished +accessories of a decollete gown and train. Miss Morris had her hand on +the arm of one of the equerries, who was battling good-naturedly with +the crowd, and trying to draw her away from two persistent youths in +diplomatic uniform who were laughing and pressing forward in close +pursuit on the other side. Carlton approached her with a certain +feeling of diffidence, which was most unusual to him, and asked if she +were dancing. + +"Mr. Carlton shall decide for me," Miss Morris said, dropping the +equerry's arm and standing beside the American. "I have promised all +of these gentlemen," she explained, "to dance with them, and now they +won't agree as to which is to dance first. They've wasted half this +waltz already in discussing it, and they make it much more difficult by +saying that no matter how I decide, they will fight duels with the one +I choose, which is most unpleasant for me." + +"Most unpleasant for the gentleman you choose, too," suggested Carlton. + +"So," continued Miss Morris, "I have decided to leave it to you." + +"Well, if I am to arbitrate between the powers," said Carlton, with a +glance at the three uniforms, "my decision is that as they insist on +fighting duels in any event, you had better dance with me until they +have settled it between them, and then the survivor can have the next +dance." + +"That's a very good idea," said Miss Morris; and taking Carlton's arm, +she bowed to the three men and drew away. + +"Mr. Carlton," said the equerry, with a bow, "has added another +argument in favor of maintaining standing armies, and of not submitting +questions to arbitration." + +"Let's get out of this," said Carlton. "You don't want to dance, do +you? Let us go where it's cool." + +He led her down the stairs, and out on to the terrace. They did not +speak again until they had left it, and were walking under the trees in +the Queen's garden. He had noticed as they made their way through the +crowd how the men and women turned to look at her and made way for her, +and how utterly unconscious she was of their doing so, with that +unconsciousness which comes from familiarity with such discrimination, +and Carlton himself held his head a little higher with the pride and +pleasure the thought gave him that he was in such friendly sympathy +with so beautiful a creature. He stopped before a low stone bench that +stood on the edge of the path, surrounded by a screen of tropical +trees, and guarded by a marble statue. They were in deep shadow +themselves, but the moonlight fell on the path at their feet, and +through the trees on the other side of the path they could see the open +terrace of the palace, with the dancers moving in and out of the +lighted windows. The splash of a fountain came from some short +distance behind them, and from time to time they heard the strains of a +regimental band alternating with the softer strains of a waltz played +by a group of Hungarian musicians. For a moment neither of them spoke, +but sat watching the white dresses of the women and the uniforms of the +men moving in and out among the trees, lighted by the lanterns hanging +from the branches, and the white mist of the moon. + +"Do you know," said Carlton, "I'm rather afraid of you to-night!" He +paused, and watched her for a little time as she sat upright, with her +hands folded on her lap. + +"You are so very resplendent and queenly and altogether different," he +added. The girl moved her bare shoulders slightly and leaned back +against the bench. + +"The Princess did not come," she said. + +"No," Carlton answered, with a sudden twinge of conscience at having +forgotten that fact. "That's one of the reasons I took you away from +those men," he explained. "I wanted you to sympathize with me." + +Miss Morris did not answer him at once. She did not seem to be in a +sympathetic mood. Her manner suggested rather that she was tired and +troubled. + +"I need sympathy myself to-night," she said. "We received a letter +after dinner that brought bad news for us. We must go home at once." + +"Bad news!" exclaimed Carlton, with much concern. "From home?" + +"Yes, from home," she replied; "but there is nothing wrong there; it is +only bad news for us. My sister has decided to be married in June +instead of July, and that cuts us out of a month on the Continent. +That's all. We shall have to leave immediately--tomorrow. It seems +that Mr. Abbey is able to go away sooner than he had hoped, and they +are to be married on the first." + +"Mr. Abbey!" exclaimed Carlton, catching at the name. "But your sister +isn't going to marry him, is she?" + +Miss Morris turned her head in some surprise. "Yes--why not?" she said. + +"But I say!" cried Carlton, "I thought your aunt told me that YOU were +going to marry Abbey; she told me so that day on the steamer when he +came to see you off." + +"I marry him--my aunt told you--impossible!" said Miss Morris, smiling. +"She probably said that 'her niece' was going to marry him; she meant +my sister. They had been engaged some time." + +"Then who are YOU going to marry?" stammered Carlton. + +"I am not going to marry any one," said Miss Morris. + +Carlton stared at her blankly in amazement. "Well, that's most +absurd!" he exclaimed. + +He recognized instantly that the expression was hardly adequate, but he +could not readjust his mind so suddenly to the new idea, and he +remained looking at her with many confused memories rushing through his +brain. A dozen questions were on his tongue. He remembered afterwards +how he had noticed a servant trimming the candle in one of the +orange-colored lanterns, and that he had watched him as he disappeared +among the palms. + +The silence lasted for so long a time that it had taken on a +significance in itself which Carlton recognized. He pulled himself up +with a short laugh. "Well," he remonstrated, mirthlessly, "I don't +think you've treated ME very well." + +"How, not treated you very well?" Miss Morris asked, settling herself +more easily. She had been sitting during the pause which followed +Carlton's discovery with a certain rigidity, as if she was on a strain +of attention. But her tone was now as friendly as always, and held its +customary suggestion of amusement. Carlton took his tone from it, +although his mind was still busily occupied with incidents and words of +hers that she had spoken in their past intercourse. + +"Not fair in letting me think you were engaged," he said. "I've wasted +so much time: I'm not half civil enough to engaged girls," he +explained. + +"You've been quite civil enough to us," said Miss Morris, "as a +courier, philosopher, and friend. I'm very sorry we have to part +company." + +"Part company!" exclaimed Carlton, in sudden alarm. "But, I say, we +mustn't do that." + +"But we must, you see," said Miss Morris. "We must go back for the +wedding, and you will have to follow the Princess Aline." + +"Yes, of course," Carlton heard his own voice say. "I had forgotten +the Princess Aline." But he was not thinking of what he was saying, +nor of the Princess Aline. He was thinking of the many hours Miss +Morris and he had been together, of the way she had looked at certain +times, and of how he had caught himself watching her at others; how he +had pictured the absent Mr. Abbey travelling with her later over the +same route, and without a chaperon, sitting close at her side or +holding her hand, and telling her just how pretty she was whenever he +wished to do so, and without any fear of the consequences. He +remembered how ready she had been to understand what he was going to +say before he had finished saying it, and how she had always made him +show the best of himself, and had caused him to leave unsaid many +things that became common and unworthy when considered in the light of +her judgment. He recalled how impatient he had been when she was late +at dinner, and how cross he was throughout one whole day when she had +kept her room. He felt with a sudden shock of delightful fear that he +had grown to depend upon her, that she was the best companion he had +ever known; and he remembered moments when they had been alone together +at the table, or in some old palace, or during a long walk, when they +had seemed to have the whole world entirely to themselves, and how he +had consoled himself at such times with the thought that no matter how +long she might be Abbey's wife, there had been these moments in her +life which were his, with which Abbey had had nothing to do. + +Carlton turned and looked at her with strange wide-open eyes, as though +he saw her for the first time. He felt so sure of himself and of his +love for her that the happiness of it made him tremble, and the thought +that if he spoke she might answer him in the old, friendly, mocking +tone of good-fellowship filled him with alarm. At that moment it +seemed to Carlton that the most natural thing in the world for them to +do would be to go back again together over the road they had come, +seeing everything in the new light of his love for her, and so travel +on and on for ever over the world, learning to love each other more and +more each succeeding day, and leaving the rest of the universe to move +along without them. + +He leaned forward with his arm along the back of the bench, and bent +his face towards hers. Her hand lay at her side, and his own closed +over it, but the shock that the touch of her fingers gave him stopped +and confused the words upon his tongue. He looked strangely at her, +and could not find the speech he needed. + +Miss Morris gave his hand a firm, friendly little pressure and drew her +own away, as if he had taken hers only in an exuberance of good feeling. + +"You have been very nice to us," she said, with an effort to make her +tone sound kindly and approving. "And we--" + +"You mustn't go; I can't let you go," said Carlton, hoarsely. There +was no mistaking his tone or his earnestness now. "IF you go," he went +on, breathlessly, "I must go with you." + +The girl moved restlessly; she leaned forward, and drew in her breath +with a slight, nervous tremor. Then she turned and faced him, almost +as though she were afraid of him or of herself, and they sat so for an +instant in silence. The air seemed to have grown close and heavy, and +Carlton saw her dimly. In the silence he heard the splash of the +fountain behind them, and the rustling of the leaves in the night wind, +and the low, sighing murmur of a waltz. + +He raised his head to listen, and she saw in the moonlight that he was +smiling. It was as though he wished to delay any answer she might make +to his last words. + +"That is the waltz," he said, still speaking in a whisper, "that the +gypsies played that night--" He stopped, and Miss Morris answered him +by bending her head slowly in assent. It seemed to be an effort for +her to even make that slight gesture. + +"YOU don't remember it," said Carlton. "It meant nothing to you. I +mean that night on the steamer when I told you what love meant to other +people. What a fool I was!" he said, with an uncertain laugh. + +"Yes, I remember it," she said--"last Thursday night, on the steamer." + +"Thursday night!" exclaimed Carlton, indignantly. "Wednesday night, +Tuesday night, how should I know what night of the week it was? It was +the night of my life to me. That night I knew that I loved you as I +had never hoped to care for any one in this world. When I told you +that I did not know what love meant I felt all the time that I was +lying. I knew that I loved you, and that I could never love any one +else, and that I had never loved any one before; and if I had thought +then you could care for me, your engagement or your promises would +never have stopped my telling you so. You said that night that I would +learn to love all the better, and more truly, for having doubted myself +so long, and, oh, Edith," he cried, taking both her hands and holding +them close in his own, "I cannot let you go now! I love you so! Don't +laugh at me; don't mock at me. All the rest of my life depends on you." + +And then Miss Morris laughed softly, just as he had begged her not to +do, but her laughter was so full of happiness, and came so gently and +sweetly, and spoke so truly of content, that though he let go of her +hands with one of his, it was only that he might draw her to him, until +her face touched his, and she felt the strength of his arm as he held +her against his breast. + + +The Hohenwalds occupied the suite of rooms on the first floor of the +hotel, with the privilege of using the broad balcony that reached out +from it over the front entrance. And at the time when Mrs. Downs and +Edith Morris and Carlton drove up to the hotel from the ball, the +Princess Aline was leaning over the balcony and watching the lights go +out in the upper part of the house, and the moonlight as it fell on the +trees and statues in the public park below. Her foot was still in +bandages, and she was wrapped in a long cloak to keep her from the +cold. Inside of the open windows that led out on to the balcony her +sisters were taking off their ornaments, and discussing the incidents +of the night just over. + +The Princess Aline, unnoticed by those below, saw Carlton help Mrs. +Downs to alight from the carriage, and then give his hand to another +muffled figure that followed her; and while Mrs. Downs was ascending +the steps, and before the second muffled figure had left the shadow of +the carriage and stepped into the moonlight, the Princess Aline saw +Carlton draw her suddenly back and kiss her lightly on the cheek, and +heard a protesting gasp, and saw Miss Morris pull her cloak over her +head and run up the steps. Then she saw Carlton shake hands with them, +and stand for a moment after they had disappeared, gazing up at the +moon and fumbling in the pockets of his coat. He drew out a cigar-case +and leisurely selected a cigar, and with much apparent content lighted +it, and then, with his head, thrown back and his chest expanded, as +though he were challenging the world, he strolled across the street and +disappeared among the shadows of the deserted park. + +The Princess walked back to one of the open windows, and stood there +leaning against the side. "That young Mr. Carlton, the artist," she +said to her sisters, "is engaged to that beautiful American girl we met +the other day." + +"Really!" said the elder sister. "I thought it was probable. Who told +you?" + +"I saw him kiss her good-night," said the Princess, stepping into the +window, "as they got out of their carriage just now." + +The Princess Aline stood for a moment looking thoughtfully at the +floor, and then walked across the room to a little writing-desk. She +unlocked a drawer in this and took from it two slips of paper, which +she folded in her hand. Then she returned slowly across the room, and +stepped out again on to the balcony. + +One of the pieces of paper held the picture Carlton had drawn of her, +and under which he had written: "This is she. Do you wonder I +travelled four thousand miles to see her?" And the other was the +picture of Carlton himself, which she had cut out of the catalogue of +the Salon. + +From the edge of the balcony where the Princess stood she could see the +glimmer of Carlton's white linen and the red glow of his cigar as he +strode proudly up and down the path of the public park, like a sentry +keeping watch. She folded the pieces of paper together and tore them +slowly into tiny fragments, and let them fall through her fingers into +the street below. Then she returned again to the room, and stood +looking at her sisters. + +"Do you know," she said, "I think I am a little tired of travelling so +much. I want to go back to Grasse." She put her hand to her, forehead +and held it there for a moment. "I think I am a little homesick," said +the Princess Aline. + + + + +THE END + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Princess Aline, by Richard Harding Davis + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PRINCESS ALINE *** + +***** This file should be named 327.txt or 327.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/327/ + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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