Our Own Set Part 21

"Yes."

For a minute the prince was silent. Every fibre of his being had its root in the traditions of the caste into which he had been born, and a connection between Zinka Sterzl and a Sempaly was to him simply monstrous. He had in the highest degree a respect for his past--"le respect des ruines"--but they must be grand ruins, of a n.o.ble past, or they did not touch him at all. With his head resting on his hand he sat silent by the supper-table, which was not yet cleared and where the lights sparkled in the half-empty champagne-gla.s.ses, and the flowers placed for the ladies still lay by their plates. Suddenly he looked up, and pointing to the newspaper, he asked:

"Had you seen that article when we came to fetch you from your rooms this morning?"

"Yes."

The prince sat bolt upright.

"And you did not stay in Rome to defend the girl?" His black eyes looked straight into his brother's blue ones. "You came with us? You left this young lady to be, for the whole day, the victim of the slander of all the evil tongues of Rome, for fear of an unpleasant explanation--for fear of a few high words with me?--You have behaved in a base and unmanly way throughout this affair, both to this young lady and to the poor sweet creature in there...." and he pointed to the door behind which the two young countesses disappeared with their mother.

"Of course I shall not let you starve; your allowance shall be paid to you regularly as heretofore--but beyond that we have no further connection; we have nothing in common, you and I. Go!"

The _deus ex machina_ had failed to appear. The dreaded scene with his brother had been postponed for a few hours, but it had come at last and Sempaly had gained nothing by his procrastination and duplicity. He had provoked not merely his brother's anger but his scorn as well, while his marriage with Zinka, when he had at last found himself compelled to announce it to his brother, had altogether lost its startling and interesting aspect as a chivalrous romance, and had come down to a mere act of reparation to satisfy his conscience.

Sempaly rose rather earlier than usual next morning, his nerves still conscious of the remembrance of this unsatisfactory scene and of the sleepless night that had been the consequence. Vexed with himself; at once surprised and touched by his brother's lofty indignation; ashamed to think of the calumny to which his irresolution and his absence must have exposed Zinka--he was in that state of sensitive irritability in which a man holds all the world in some degree responsible for his own shortcomings, and is ready to revenge himself on the first man he meets for the misery he is enduring.

While he was waiting for his breakfast, walking up and down the sitting-room--half drawing-room, half smoking-room--the general came in. For the first time in his life Sempaly greeted the old man as an intruder.

"Good-morning," he cried, "what procures me the honor of such an early visit?"

"Well," said Von Klinger hotly, "it can scarcely surprise you that I, as Zinka's G.o.d-father and oldest friend, should come to ask you what you mean by your extraordinary conduct."

"That, it seems to me, is her brother's business," said Sempaly roughly.

"It is on purpose to prevent a collision between you and Sterzl that I have come so early," replied the general, who was cut out for an officer of dragoons rather than for a diplomatist. "Sterzl is beside himself with fury, and I know that your intentions with regard to Zinka are perfectly honorable, and so...."

But at this moment the general's eye fell on a travelling-bag that the luxurious young attache was wont to carry with him on short journeys, and which lay packed on the divan. "You are going away?" asked the old man surprised.

"I had intended to accompany my brother as far as Ostia to-day and return early to-morrow; but that is at an end--the prince and I have quarrelled--yes, I have quarrelled past all possibility of a reconciliation with my n.o.ble and generous brother. Are you satisfied?"

and he stamped with rage.

"And is the want of judgment that has led to your parting any fault of mine pray?" exclaimed the general angrily.

There was a hasty rap at the door; on Sempaly's answering: "come in,"

Sterzl walked in. He did not take Sempaly's offered hand but drew a newspaper out of his pocket, held it out in front of Sempaly, and asked abruptly:

"Have you read this article?"

"Yes," said Sempaly from between his teeth.

"Yesterday--before you went out?" Sterzl went on.

This word-for-word repet.i.tion of the prince's question touched all Sempaly's most painful and shameful recollections of the scene to the quick. His eyes flashed, but he said nothing.

Sterzl could contain himself no longer. All the bitter feelings of the last six weeks seethed in his blood, and the luckless travelling-bag caught his eye. This was too much...

What happened next?...

The general saw it all in a flash of time--unexpected, and inevitable.

Sterzl took one stride forward and struck Sempaly in the face with the newspaper. At the same moment Sempaly's servant came in with the breakfast tray.

A few minutes later Sterzl and the general went down the stairs of the emba.s.sy in silence, not even looking at each other. When they were outside the younger man stopped and drew a deep breath:

"Sempaly will send you his seconds in the course of the morning," he said; "I must ask you to act for me."

The general nodded but did not speak.

"I will send word to Crespigny too, and then you can do whatever you think proper."

Still the general said nothing, and his silence irritated Sterzl.

"I could bear it no longer," he muttered as if in delirium; "what ...

do you suppose ... too much...."

By this time they were in the Corso. Towards them came Siegburg, as bright and gay as ever, his hat pushed back on his head.

"I am happy to be the first to congratulate you, Sterzl," he cried.

"On what pray?" said Sterzl fiercely.

"On your sister's engagement to Sempaly--what! then you really did know nothing about it?"

Sterzl was bewildered: "What is it--what are you talking about?--I do not understand," he stammered.

"What, have you not heard?" Siegburg began; "the bomb fell last evening; Nicki declared his engagement. Oscar, to whom the whole business was news ... come into this cafe and I will tell you exactly all about it; it does not do to discuss such things in the street."

"I--I have not time," muttered Sterzl with a fixed vacant stare; and, as he spoke, he shot past Siegburg; but his gait was unsteady and he ran up against a pa.s.ser-by.

"What on earth ails him?" said Siegburg looking after him. "I thought he would be pleased and--well! the ways of man are past finding out.

This marriage will create a sensation in Vienna, eh, general? But I approve--I entirely approve. We are on the threshold of a new era, as Schiller--or some one has said, Bismarck very likely--and we shall live to tell our children how we stood by and looked on. But what is the matter with you both--you and Sterzl? To be sure--you were coming from the Palazzo di Venezia--have Nicki and Sterzl quarrelled--a challenge!"

The general nodded. "But it can be amicably arranged now," said Siegburg consolingly.

CHAPTER VI.

On his return home Sterzl found Sempaly's note of the day before. The porter had taken it, as he was ordered, to the secretary's office, but as Sterzl had not gone there all day it had lain unopened; till, this morning, one of the messengers had thought it well to bring it to the palazetto. Sterzl read it and hid his face in his hands.

Within a short time Sempaly's seconds were announced--Siegburg and a military attache from the Russian emba.s.sy.

No, it could not be amicably arranged--under the circ.u.mstances there was but one way of satisfying the point of honor. This point of honor--what is it? A social dogma of the man of the world, and the whole creed of the southern aristocrat.

Sterzl was to start that night by the eleven o'clock train for Vienna, on matters of business, before setting out for Constantinople. The affair must therefore be settled at once. Beyond fixing the hour Sterzl left everything to his seconds. Swords, at seven that evening, among the ruins opposite the tomb of the Metellas was finally agreed on.