Black Oxen Part 45

She lifted her hand. He raised it to his lips.

And then he drew back and looked at her with penetrating but smiling eyes.

"I had heard, of course," he said gallantly, "but I hardly was prepared. May I say, Frau Grafin, that you look younger than when I had the pleasure of meeting you first?"

"I a.s.sure you that I feel many years younger," she replied lightly.

"May I add that I am delighted to see that you are in the best of health? Your rest in Switzerland has done you good, although it would have been better for Austria had it been shorter. Shall we sit down?"

Two tall dignified bodies adjusted themselves to chairs both slippery and b.u.mpy. He had closed the door behind him.

"Now that the amenities are over, Excellenz," she said with the briskness she had picked up from her American friends, "let us come to the point. I infer you did not take a day's journey and put up with this abominable hotel to tell me that you are forming a Federation of Austria and the South German States. You were sometimes kind enough to ask my help in the past, but I have no influence in Was.h.i.+ngton."

"No, dear Grafin. I do not need your a.s.sistance in Was.h.i.+ngton. But I do need it in Austria, and that is why I am here."

"But it is--was--my intention to return to Austria almost immediately.

Surely Judge Trent must have told you."

"Yes, dear Grafin, he told me, but he also told me other things. I shall not waste the little time at our disposal in diplomacy. He told me that you have the intention to marry a young American." There was the faintest accent on the _young_.

Mary was annoyed to feel herself flus.h.i.+ng, but she answered coldly, "It is quite true that I intend to marry Mr. Clavering."

"And I have come here to ask you to renounce that intention and to marry me instead."

"You!" Mary almost rose from her chair. "What on earth do you mean?"

"My dear Marie." He renounced formalities abruptly. "I think you will be able to recall that whether I wrapped my meaning in diplomatic phrases or conveyed it by the blunter method, it was always sufficiently clear to the trained understanding. I have never known a more trained or acute understanding than yours. I wish you to marry me, and I beg you to listen to my reasons."

She gave the little foreign shrug she had almost forgotten. "I will listen, of course. Need I add that I am highly honored? If I were not so astonished, no doubt I should be more properly appreciative of that honor. Pray let me hear the reasons." Her tone was satirical, but she was beginning to feel vaguely uneasy.

Neither her words nor her inflections ruffled the calm of that long immobile face with its half-veiled powerful eyes.

"Let us avert all possible misunderstandings at the beginning," he said suavely. "I shall not pretend that I have fallen in love with you again, for although my gallantry prompts me to such a natural statement, I have not the faintest hope of deceiving you. What I felt for you once can never be revived, for I loved you more than I have ever loved any woman; and when such love burns itself out, its ashes are no more to be rekindled than the dust of the corpse. You thought I fell in love with my pretty young wife, but I was merely fond and appreciative of her. I knew that the end had come for us, and that if I did not recognize that sad fact, you would. My marriage, which, as you know, was imperative, afforded a graceful climax to a unique episode in the lives of both of us. There was no demoralizing interval of subterfuge and politely repressed ennui. On the other hand, it did not degenerate into one of those dreary and loosely knit _liaisons_, lasting on into old age. We left each other on the heights, although the cliff was beginning to crumble."

"Really, Moritz! I hope you have not come up here to indulge in sentimental reminiscence. Why rake up that old--episode? I a.s.sure you I have practically forgotten it."

"And I can a.s.sure you that I never felt less sentimental. I wish merely to emphasize the fact that it was complete in itself, and therefore as impossible of resuscitation as the dead. Otherwise, you might naturally leap to the conclusion that I was an elderly romantic gentleman----"

"Oh, never! It is obvious that you are inclined to be brutally frank.

But, as you said, time is short."

"If what I said sounded brutal, it was merely to remind you that love--the intense pa.s.sionate love I have no doubt you feel for this young man who helps you to realize your renewed youth--never lasts.

And when this new love of yours burns itself out--you never had the reputation of being very constant, dear Marie--you will have an alien young man on your hands, while that remarkable brain of yours will be demanding its field of action. You are European, not American--why, even your accent is stronger than mine! That may be due to an uncommonly susceptible ear, but as a matter of fact your mind has a stronger accent still. You became thoroughly Europeanized, one of us, and--I say this quite impartially--the most statesman-like woman in Europe. Your mind was still plastic when you came to us--and your plastic years are long over, _ma chere_. If your mind had become as young as your body, you would have bitterly resented it. You were always very proud of that intellect of yours--and with the best of reasons."

Mary was staring out of the window. She recalled that she had faced the fact of the old mind in the young brain when she first discovered that she loved Clavering. How could she have forgotten ... for a few short weeks--and up there? ... She raised her eyes to the mountain.

From where she sat she could not see the top. It looked like an impenetrable rampart, rising to the skies.

"Can you tell me with honesty and candor," he continued in those same gentle tones that had always reminded her of limpid water running over iron, "--and for all your subtlety your mind is too arrogant and fearless to be otherwise than honest _au fond_--that you believe you could remain satisfied with love alone? For more, let us say, than a year?"

She moved restlessly. "Perhaps not. But I had planned to live in Vienna. He would spend only a part of the year there with me. His own interests are here, of course. It would be a perfectly workable arrangement."

"Are you sure? If you are, I must conclude that in the mental confusion love so often induces, you have lost temporarily your remarkable powers of clear and coherent thought. Do you not realize that you would no longer be Grafin Zattiany, you would be Mrs. Lee Clavering? Do you imagine for a moment that you could play the great role in Austrian affairs you have set yourself, handicapped by an American name--and an American husband? Not with all your gifts, your wealth, your genius for playing on that complex instrument called human nature. Austria may be a Republic of sorts, but it is still Austria.

You would be an American and an outsider--a presumptuous interloper."

She stared at him aghast. "I--oh!--I had not thought of that. It seems incomprehensible--but I had never thought of myself as Mrs.

Clavering. I have been Grafin Zattiany so long!"

"And your plans were well-defined, and your ambition to play a great role on the modern European stage possessed you utterly until you met this young man--is it not so?"

"Oh, yes, but----"

"I understand. It must have been a quite marvellous experience, after those barren years, to feel yourself glowing with all the vitalities of youth once more; to bring young men to your feet with a glance and to fancy yourself in love----"

"Fancy!" She interrupted him pa.s.sionately. "I am in love--and more--more than I ever was with you. Until I met him I did not even guess that I had the capacity to love again. It was the last thing I wanted. Abhorrent! But ... but ... he has something for me that you--not even you--ever had ... that I had given up hope of finding long before I met you... ."

She stopped, coloring and hesitating. She had an intense desire to make this man understand, but she s.h.i.+vered, as if her proud reserve were a visible garment that she had torn off and flung at his feet, leaving her naked to his ironic gaze.

He was leaning forward, regarding her through his veiled eyes. Their light was not ironic, but it was very penetrating.

"And what is that something, Marie?" he asked softly.

"I--you know those things cannot be put into words."

"I fancy they can. It is merely one more delusion of the senses. One of the imagination's most devilish tricks. I had it for you and you for me--for a time! In the intimacies of either a _liaison_ or matrimony that supreme delusion is soon scattered, _ma chere_."

"But I believe it." She spoke obstinately, although that brawling stream seemed to take on a note of derision.

"Do you? Not in the depths of your clear brain. The mist on top is dense and hot--but, alas for those mists!"

"I refuse to discuss it," she said haughtily. "Why do you wish to marry me yourself?"

"Because I need your partners.h.i.+p as much as you need mine. Even if you returned to Austria unenc.u.mbered, you could accomplish less alone than with a man of equal endowments and greater power beside you. Two strong brains and characters with similar purpose can always accomplish more together than alone. I intend to rule and to save Austria, and I need you, your help, your advice, your subtlety, your compelling fascination, and your great personality."

"Do you intend to make yourself king?" she asked insolently, although his words had thrilled her.

"You know that is a foolish question. I do not even use my t.i.tle there. But I intend to make Vienna the capital of a great and powerful Republic, and I therefore ask you to renounce, before it is too late, this commonplace and unworthy dream of young love, and stand beside me.

Youth--real youth--and the best years of maturity are the seasons for love. You and I have sterner duties. Do you suppose that I would sacrifice Austria for some brief wild hope of human happiness? And you are only two years younger than I am. Nothing can alter the march of the years. Moreover, you owe to Austria this wonderful rejuvenescence of yours. Steinach is not an American."

She stamped her foot. "You descend to quibbling. And I have more than repaid Austria all that I owe her."

"You have given her money and service, but she expects more, and you pledged yourself to her before you left. And don't forget that she is the country of your deliberate adoption. A far more momentous thing than any mere accident of birth. You did not return to America when Zattiany died. You never even paid her a brief visit after your marriage. You would not be here now but for the imperative necessities of business. You are Austrian to your marrow."

"I had a role thrust on me and I played it. My parents came to Europe every year until they died. When Zattiany went, there were no ties to draw me back and habit is strong. But--underneath--I don't believe that I have ever been other than Mary Ogden."

She blushed as she said it, and he looked at her keenly.

"I think I understand. He is a very clever young man--of an outstanding cleverness, I am told. Or it may be that he is merely in love, and love's delusions are infinite--for a time. I doubt if a young man with so brilliant an intellect would, if he faced himself in honest detachment, admit that he believed anything of the sort. Nor do you, my dear Marie, nor do you."

She twisted her hands together, but would not raise her eyes. He bent forward again and said harshly: