By Wit of Woman Part 23

CHAPTER XII

HIS EXCELLENCY AGAIN

If the truth must be confessed I had surprised myself quite as much as Count Gustav in declaring my wish that Karl should marry Madame d'Artelle. I had spoken in response to the feeling of hot resentment he had roused by his bitter taunt that a marriage with me would prove an effectual disgrace for Karl.

And what stung me was the obvious truth of it all.

My father was the proscribed murderer of the man who, had he lived, would have been the future occupant of the new throne; and for Karl to marry such a man's daughter must mean absolute death to his chance of succeeding to that throne.

The gall and wormwood of that thought were intolerable. Madame d'Artelle, ex-police spy as she was, bigamist as she would be, and with a past that would not bear investigation, was a suitable and eligible match compared with me! And the torture I suffered as this conclusion forced itself home, is not easy to describe.

One thing was clearly borne in upon me. I would not marry either Karl or any other man until that slur was off my name. I would not rest until that was done. The wish to clear up the mystery which I had at first felt mainly for my dead father's sake, now quickened into a pa.s.sionate resolve on my own account. For my own sake I must and would get to the bottom of the mystery; and the risk of neither my fortune nor my safety should be allowed to come between me and it.

I had called it a tangle; and what a tangle it was! Whichever way I moved there were difficulties that seemed insuperable. In one direction Gareth's pretty, smiling, trustful face blocked my path.

Unless I broke my pledge to her, I could not open my lips to her father. And if I did not tell him, I might get no farther forward to my end. If he held the key to the mystery, it was only too probable that, as Count Gustav had implied, he could not speak without accusing himself. It was therefore useless to deal with him until I had found the means of compelling him to say what he knew.

Count Gustav himself knew of my father's innocence, and had pledged his honour to help me to clear it; but even if I trusted him, which I did not, the price was connivance in his schemes--in Gareth's fate and Karl's undoing. That door was therefore shut in my face.

There remained Duke Ladislas, General von Erlanger and Karl himself.

The Duke was hopeless, so far as I was concerned. The General most unlikely to help me. As for Karl, I doubted whether he knew anything, or even if he did know, whether he possessed a spark of the energy necessary to help.

Could I infuse that energy into him?

As the question leaped into my mind, I began to think earnestly of the means to do this. If Count Gustav was right in what he had said in his jeering, flaunting way about Karl's feelings for me, I might indeed have much power over him. Up to this point I had been stumbling at random and in the dark in regard to Karl. I had had an indefinite plan to secure his influence by saving him from the ruin which others threatened. But now a much clearer path opened.

And then I saw how my impulse of anger could be used for my purpose--the impulse which had led me to agree that the plan for the marriage with Madame d'Artelle should go forward.

My original plan had been to let the elopement take place and then go to the house, "Unter den Linden," and by exposing Madame d'Artelle, frighten her away and at the same time establish my influence with Karl.

I saw a better plan, however, into which all the preparations I had made would fit admirably. There was risk in it and danger to my own reputation; but I could take care of that. I was too desperate to be scared by any fear of consequences. What I thought to do now was to play Madame's part in the business, and to take her place in the carriage with Karl. I guessed that Gustav would see to it that he was stupefied with either drink or drugs, when the crisis came; and in a dark carriage, closely veiled, I could trust myself to maintain the deception successfully.

I knew that Gustav was to bring his brother to the carriage; and in this way I could delude him as to my own movements. That was as essential to my plans as it was that I should have free and full opportunities of exerting my influence upon Karl.

I had to think also of my personal safety. I did not under-rate the risk which I was now to run on that account. In pitting myself against Count Gustav I was fighting the whole influence which his father wielded. The Duke had not scrupled to sacrifice my father; and was not likely to be less drastic in dealing with me if I stood in his way.

And one word from Count Gustav would be enough to bring the whole force of his anger upon me.

I was deliberating what steps to take when a note was brought to me from General von Erlanger, asking me in somewhat urgent terms to go and see him.

I was glad of the chance. I might find out from him how far the Duke would have power to threaten my safety should Count Gustav obtain his help.

But I found his Excellency very far removed from an inclination to discuss serious matters seriously. I saw at once that he had dressed himself with more than usual care; he was wearing a number of the orders he had received in the course of a successful diplomatic and political career; and he welcomed me with genial smiles and quite unnecessary warmth. He held my hand so long indeed, as he greeted me, that his two daughters noticed it. I saw them nudge each other and sn.i.g.g.e.r, and I had to give quite a tug to get it away.

He insisted upon my staying to dinner, all unprepared though I was; and when I pleaded that I had no dinner costume, he declared that I was never anything but charming; and that he would take no excuse.

The girls carried me away to put my hair tidy, and then gave me their confidences about their father and the new governess. She was a "beast," it seemed, according to Charlotte; and the General wished me to return.

"Father misses his chess with you," she said, with the ingenuous directness of her age: "that is why he wants you back. We think he's going to make you his secretary as well. He talks an awful lot about wanting help."

"He took over an hour dressing himself when he knew you were coming,"

chimed in the younger, Sophia; "and he made Charlotte go and tell him if his hair was parted straight."

"He's always talking about how well you play chess, and how clever you are."

"And he never puts those orders on unless somebody awfully particular is coming!" They rattled on in this way at considerable length; and during dinner watched the General's conduct to me very closely, nodding and smiling significantly at me, and winking at each other.

I had remained a week in the house after my coming to an understanding with him, and before I went to Madame d'Artelle's and during that time we had had more than one confidential talk.

When an old man yields to the influence of a very young woman, it is often a considerable surrender. It had been so in his Excellency's case; and I was quite conscious that I could do a great deal with him.

Vivien could with Merlin; and a Minister of ripe and long experience can make a very interesting Merlin.

In those talks of ours he had sometimes forgotten the difference of forty years in our ages, and more than once had paid me compliments which might have been almost embarra.s.sing had I been minded to take them at all literally.

The girls' chatter had therefore prepared me in a measure for what might be to follow when they had been sent away and we two were once again face to face over the chess board.

"I have missed my chess very much, Miss Gilmore. I can't tell you how much."

"You should teach Charlotte to play."

"She would never learn. She is just a child, no more."

"You are not playing well yourself, to-night."

He laughed. "That's what I like about you. You blurt the truth out with delightful frankness. I don't want to play to-night."

"Is that why you say you've missed your chess so much?"

"I've missed your white hands moving among the men, more than the game itself." He spoke very quickly, and fumbling nervously among the men upset two of them.

I made a move then that was not chess. I'm not sure that it was quite fair to him indeed. Pretending haste in picking the pieces up, I touched his hand and glanced at him. Our eyes met; and withdrawing my hand quickly, I upset some more men, with a suggestion of agitation.

"I beg your pardon," I stammered. "I'm afraid I don't remember how they stood. I--I think I'm a little confused."

"Why should you be?" he asked, with a glance.

"I don't know. It's very silly. I don't understand myself. I--I believe I'm nervous."

"I can't imagine you nervous--er--Christabel." It was very daring of him; but he tried to say it as if it was his rule to use my name.

I cast my eyes down and sighed. "I think I'll go now," I said after a pause; "if you don't mind."

"But I _do_ mind, very much. Don't bother about the game. I don't care where the men were."

I smiled. "Possibly; but I think I was going to win. I began to see mate ahead."

"I wish _I_ could," he declared.